Aliro retires after 11 years

By Emmanuel N. Mugarura
Dec 4, 2003
KAMPALA - The Monitor Editor, Mr Kevin Ogen Aliro, has taken an early retirement after 11
years of service.
The Managing Director, Mr Wafula Oguttu, yesterday wished Aliro luck in his retirement.

"Please join me in wishing Mr Aliro good luck in his retirement and
thank him for his services rendered to this company," Wafula
wrote yesterday in a circular to staff moments after the outgoing
editor announced his resignation.
"Kevin is one of the finest journalists in town. But a journalist's
job is strenuous and although he did not need to tell us why he
might have wanted to take a rest from the long strain and later do
something less taxing, still, I believe he will continue writing for
The Monitor when he finds some time," Wafula said.
He appealed to staff to join management in accepting Kevin's
early retirement because "each of us will have to leave at one
time or another".
"I hope Kevin will continue to be available to our journalists for advice," he said.
Wafula said that the Managing Editor, Mr David Ouma Balikowa, would take on the editor's
responsibilities as well.
"As a result there is bound to be some movement of other editorial staff," Wafula said last
night.
Aliro has served The Monitor variously as news editor, chief sub editor, and training and
production editor and more recently as the editor.
He was one of the paper's founders in July 1992 and owns 6.6 percent of the company.
Aliro thanked the staff for making his work great fun. "I thank all of you, especially the
editorial staff - for the wonderful time you gave me during the last eleven years. I shall
always keep in touch and offer whatever personal or professional support you may seek,"
Aliro said in a message posted on the staff network.
Aliro said he was leaving to do personal things. "Once again, thank you so much for your
support during all these challenging but most interesting and rewarding years," the
message said.
Kevin, as he was popularly known in the newsroom, will start his retirement today.
He said he would spend the next three months helping to recreate his football club - SC Villa

Mr. Kevin Ogen Aliro
- of which he is the organising secretary.
"For once I shall have all the time I need to help turn SC Villa into one of the best clubs in
Africa," he said.
Aliro, who holds a master's degree in development planning from the University of Glasgow,
said he would spend much of 2004 researching his long proposed book on Ugandan society.
"When I complete the book around June 2004, I shall then decide what to do next - most
likely take up a teaching position at one of the universities.
"I also have a pending research project on the impact of conflicts in the Great Lakes Region
on the economy of Uganda.
That is already quite a mouthful," he said last night as he edited his last story for The
Monitor.
The management is this weekend throwing a big send-off party for Aliro.

2003 The Monitor Publications
I will personaly miss this guy. I wonder what the real reasons are for his early "retirement"?
Journalist like "revolutionaries" never retire. And this Alero fellow has been one heck of a
jounalist!
If i were Gaddafi i would have strongly advised him NOT to "Retire" He is one guy i would have
gladly given a "Third term"!
God bless him in his new calling. I hope he remains true to himself and his beliefs.

How would Museveni want his child treated?
By Ogen Kevin Aliro
July 31, 2003

Ugandans were on Sunday treated to another bizarre political drama as
government security agents blocked Ms Edith Byanyima from crossing into
neighbouring Rwanda through the Katuna border post. Ediths sins seem a
mouthful. Anselm, son to the Opposition leader Kizza Besigye(File photos).
First, she has the misfortune of being the sister of Mbarara Municipality MP
Winnie Byanyima. Winnie in turn has the misfortune of being the wife of the
exiled Dr Kizza Besigye, the retired army colonel who dared President Yoweri
Museveni during the 2001 presidential elections.

The grapevine has many stories why Museveni is so bitter and hard on the
Besigyes, especially Winnie. But that is a story for next time.

The authorities say that they blocked Edith from crossing into Rwanda because
in addition to being Winnies sister, she was also travelling with Besigyes
son, Anselm.

The Internal Affairs minister Ndugu Ruhakana Rugunda and the Police said that
Edith had no custodial authority to travel with her nephew.

In the end, the Police harassed and dragged Edith, Anselm & Co. back to
Mbarara. Edith was charged the following day before being released on police
bond. Winnie who is out of the country attending a conference in India
reacted angrily.

I cannot understand how far the security agencies are determined to go to
harass us, she wrote in an e-mail message.

I interviewed Winnie a few weeks ago and had asked her whether she was scared
of continued harassment and arrest.

Winnie told me that she was ready for anything because it would be just
another occupational hazard.

That is quite a brave way to cope with her political nightmares given that
she has been in and out of court seven times since the presidential elections
in March 2001.

State security agents have also tried to frame Winnie by compromising her
drivers.

The first driver was so infuriated by the State House officials involved that
he fled into exile.

The next driver was also offered money to mobilise information to support
false allegations against Winnie.

The poor fellow was not so clever and the intelligence officials ended up
throwing him into jail. He wrote a letter to Winnie from his cell, confessing
everything that state agents had asked him to do.

A third driver firmly declined to be used by the state agents.

Such has been Winnies life ever since she decided to support her husband
Besigyes presidential bid against Museveni in 2001.

To many Ugandans possessed of blind support for the Movement and especially
for Museveni the man Winnie and Besigye are paying the heavy but well-
deserved price of treachery.

I disagree.

I particularly find the latest action against the Byanyima and Besigye
families morally and politically repulsive.

Why would someone said to be as intelligent as Museveni sink so low?

Why is Museveni harassing a three-year boy like Anselm whatever his parents
may have done to annoy the President?

What kind of person shall Anselm become when he grows up, after suffering
such political torture and harassment at a most tender age?

Lets suppose Anselm were Musevenis son. Is that how the President would
have loved to see his three-year old child treated by state agents of another
government?

What if Anselm became president one day? Is that the kind of treatment the
president would love to see His Excellency Anselm Besigye Kyamufumba mete out
on Kaguta Musevenis great grand children?

A critic in London captured the absurdity of an all-powerful Museveni setting
himself firmly against Anselm with this bold headline for his organisations
press release: A Three-Year-Old Opposition Leader Arrested!

Back in 2000, a State House friend persuaded me to continue supporting
President Museveni so that the man from Rwakitura could depart peacefully
in 2006 without dragging the entire country down with him. I went along.

Unfortunately, every single action since the presidential elections in March
2006 seems like a betrayal of the trust so many Ugandans vested in Museveni.

Once, I would stubbornly refuse to believe some of the things the grapevine
brought out about the President. Now I can believe almost anything.

Even before the latest one between little Anselm and Lt. Gen. Museveni, the
grapevine was spreading that talk about another bizarre scene involving the
President and his childhood friend Eriya Kategaya, the former deputy prime
minister who was sacked in May 2003.

Both Museveni and Kategaya were reportedly somewhere in Ankole to attend a
pre-wedding ceremony of former Attorney General Bart Katureebes daughter.

Kategaya arrived first and sat next to Mbararas Archbishop Bakyenga. Several
dignitaries received Museveni at the entrance as he arrived.

The President walked toward his seat shaking hands with some of the other
guests who had kept their places. Museveni was reportedly about to shake
hands with Archbishop Bakyenga when he saw Kategaya.

He abruptly turned and walked away without acknowledging Kategaya and the
archbishop.
An embarrassed master of ceremonies later whispered to the archbishop,
begging him to go over and greet the President.

Bakyenga flatly refused apparently to protest the Presidents conduct.

The grapevine may have sexed up this story. Still, I find it so troubling
that the President could treat Kategaya with so much hatred and disdain.

Those who have known them for much longer tell us that as young boys, the two
were so close that they sometimes even shared girlfriends!

So why would Museveni humiliate and treat once very close and trusted allies
such as Kategaya, Besigye and Winnie so ruthlessly?

The easy answer is that the President genuinely feels betrayed by his buddies
who have become so treacherous to the extent of telling him to respect the
Constitution and leave power in 2006. That is a simple one.

What should however really worry Ugandans more is the message behind
Musevenis humiliation and ruthless treatment of those who were once so close
to him.

He is really harassing all of us indirectly telling us to learn from what
is happening to the Winnies and Kategayas of this world.

The President is saying; is any of you closer to me than Kategaya or Winnie
was? If I can do this to them for crossing my path, how about the rest of you
good-for-nothings?

It is a more sophisticated way of doing what former President Idi Amin used
to do to his imagined enemies who were lucky to remain alive.

Amin would reportedly let you see the mutilated body of your murdered
colleague or order a firing squad in public not so much to humiliate the
dead and dying, but to put those still living on notice.

Such shock and awe approaches instil deathly fear and force most Ugandans
to remain silent in the face of gross human rights abuses and other political
crimes.

Today few Ugandans would wish to be in the Byanyimas shoes. None would wish
to see their children suffer little Anselms fate. In order to protect
themselves, their families and businesses many Ugandans are now choosing
complete silence and political anonymity instead of coming forward to tell
their beloved king that he is naked.

The opportunistic ones cope by sycophantically mortgaging whatever remains of
their conscience and principles to the powers that be.

That is why while Museveni initially wanted just one more bonus five-year
term after 2006, there is now a chorus for him to remain president for life.

Whatever the case, never forget that all power belongs to the people. Soon
Ugandans could borrow a leaf from our brothers and sisters in Equatoria
Guinea who have recently exercised that peoples power to the extent of
declaring President Teodoro Obiang Nguema a God who has all power over
men and things!
Museveni 'fears' life out there!
When former spymaster David Pulkol suggested that President Museveni should be given an
appetising retirement package and immunity (from prosecution) to quit power next year, few
took him seriously.
But Pulkols proposal could be critical in ensuring a peaceful transition from Museveni to the
next president.
According to some State House insiders, Museveni is genuinely afraid of what might
happen to him (and especially his family) once he leaves power.
An aide claims Musevenis son, Maj. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has expressed fear that there are
people just waiting to arrest his father the moment he leaves power.
Muhoozi reportedly says his father needs a ladder [immunity] to come down safely. If a
man is on the sixth floor, you dont force him to jump down. You give him a ladder to come
down safe and secure, the aide quotes Muhoozi as having said recently.
In short, once guaranteed immunity from prosecution for self, family and cronies, Museveni
would probably abandon his attempt to hang on beyond 2006.
Someone close to Museveni says some sensible opposition MP should quickly move a
motion in Parliament to grant Museveni and his family immunity.
Otherwise, they argue, they will use the forthcoming referendum to block a return to multiparty
politics thus completely shutting out the parties.
It is unlikely that anyone would persecute Museveni if he stepped down next year according to
the constitution. However, there seems to be real fear within his family and akazu (an inner
ruling clique of six relatives, in-laws and friends).
Former U.S. ambassador Johnnie Carson, writing in the Boston Globe, has also argued that
Museveni may want to cling to power in part to protect his family.
Musevenis cronies are actually afraid that a new government that they do not control could
follow them up on alleged corruption. This group is now the most dangerous; because it
desperately needs Museveni for its own protection against justice.
But should Musevenis family and cronies get blanket immunity for whatever they did between
1981 and 2006? Would that ensure a peaceful transition or, would it only breed more impunity?
Should immunity from prosecution be special to Musevenis family alone, or should it cover all
former leaders from independence to 2006?
Ugandans need to debate these questions urgently.
On the other hand, why should Ugandans bribe Museveni to respect the constitution and
abide by his own 2001 manifesto? Recently, a listener calling into a radio station dismissed all
arguments about how Uganda cannot do without Museveni.
Anything that breathes will cease to breathe one day. So what happens when Museveni too
stops breathing, will that be the end of Uganda? the caller asked.
After Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had ruled Tanzania for 26 years, his cronies begged him to
stay for just five more years because the country still needs you.
Nyerere had learnt his lessons. He also knew the real intentions of those opportunists. So he said,
Nooo! If I could not do it in 26 years, I can never do it in five!
Tanzanians are today getting set to elect their third president after Nyerere. Nyerere is even dead,
but every day the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. If Tanzania could do without the
phenomenon that Nyerere was, Uganda too can move on without Museveni in State House.
When President Clinton was campaigning for his last term in 1996, the pledges he made to the
American voters were based on programmes that could mostly be achieved after 2025 when
Clinton himself would probably be dead.
Museveni often sees himself as the messiah the only one but even Jesus Christ left
unfinished business that his disciples still carry on today.

In short, Museveni cannot be the beginning, middle and end of everything. He should actually
run away from people like Defence minister Amama Mbabazi who tell him that he is still very
young and could rule for 25 more years.
Anyone who truly loves Museveni should tell him to go next year. Even if he forced a third
term, his continued reign would be a disaster.
After 25 years (in 2011), Museveni would have made so many mistakes. After 30 years (2016),
Museveni would want to stay president for life because his cumulative mistakes would be
unforgivable.
The country would meantime sink in the fashion of Robert Mugabes Zimbabwe. In any case,
Musevenis relations with neighbours and donors can only get worse the longer he stays. We
are enemies with Rwanda, while D.R. Congo remains suspicious of us. Relations with Tanzania
are bound to suffer too, especially if Jakaya Kikwete becomes new president after elections in
December (since the ruling partys flag bearer is reportedly a close friend of FDC leader Eriya
Kategaya). With Kenya, we have not really been close friends.
Internationally, Britain a leading donor has suspended some aid. Some other European
countries are ready do a bit of that as well. When Museveni recently sent emissaries to London to
beg the British for understanding on the third term and other issues, they were sent back empty-
handed.
Germany recently refused to sell wheel-loaders to the UPDF although Uganda had paid cash
500,000 euros for the equipment. The Americans too cannot forever remain blindly
supportive. After all, Uganda is not even such a strategic ally in Americas so-called war on
terror or a significant trading partner.
It is actually significant that the American Embassy in Kampala went out of its way to ensure
that Ambassador Johnnie Carsons article that compared Museveni to [Robert] Mugabe was
reproduced in all major Ugandan newspapers.
If Museveni hangs on beyond 2006, he will only succeed in putting Uganda back on the
international blacklist and thus reverse whatever gains the country made in the last 20 years.
Internally, there will be more restlessness in the population and in the army (since every
lieutenant general now seems to have his own clique in there).
After 20 years of one-man rule, there are groups (even within the ruling party) that feel so
marginalised that they will try anything to bring change. At that stage, any change seems good.
Three years ago, almost everyone still praised Museveni for good roads. Today, the same people
are cursing Museveni for the new generation of potholes. If he had stepped down, probably in
2001, Ugandans would today be cursing the new president for not maintaining the roads our
beloved Museveni built!
Weekly Observer OPINION, 16th December 2004
Ogen Kevin Aliro : Only truth can set Tinye free
So Lt. Gen. David Tinyefuza apologises to President Museveni and confesses that he was
misled even possessed when he denounced the system and tried to leave the UPDF
in 1997?
Here are Tinyefuzas exact words as quoted in the papers:
Mzee (Museveni), forgive me because I got advice from some people. It was as if I was
possessed because I received advice from some circles but I later woke up to my senses
and made a turn-around. I am prepared to work with you even more.
The generals belated public apology to Mr. Museveni came on December 4 at Emmanuel
Cathedral, Rushere (Mbarara) as the President attended the wedding of Tinyefuzas
daughter.
Miria Matembe (Woman MP for Mbarara) and former Ethics and Integrity minister cannot
believe that the general has no shame in claiming that he was ill advised.
Things are like [George Orwells] Animal Farm. The chicken used to come and say I have
been misadvised by so and so. Who was misadvising Tinyefuza? He saw the wrong things
and he still sees them, Matembe said in an interview with The Weekly Observer.
Tinyefuzas story is a very interesting one; especially to the few friends who remained
close to the once maverick general during his lowest moments in 1997.
I feel personally insulted because Tinyefuza is lying about the kind of advice he received
from some circles - including myself. To the contrary, he often refused to take sensible
advice. One night he spat back at me: Do you think I do not know what I am doing?
That was shortly after Tinyefuza lost the final court battle to government.
His official military police guards were withdrawn and most of Tinyefuzas friends
abandoned him. The general had instantly become a political leper and an untouchable
to anyone who still sought patronage from the system.
Even the few military friends who empathised with Tinyefuza did not dare go anywhere near
his home in Kyengera. The one or two really daring ones only came by night.
Tinyefuza felt completely naked in terms of personal security. He was afraid they
would try to kill him in the night, especially now that the official bodyguards and arms had
been withdrawn.
We moved quickly and improvised.
A friend in Makindye helped us to mobilise several LDUs armed with AK47s, who we
irregularly deployed at Tinyefuzas residence in Kyengera. Just in case.
One night we sat with Tinyefuza by his swimming pool.
I drank wine and whisky.
Tinyefuza initially refused to drink but he later drank too.
After midnight, we moved to the veranda. Tinyefuza asked me to do him one last favour
as a friend and someone who has married our daughter.
He wanted me to book a hall either at the Grand Imperial or any other downtown hotel for a
press conference. He also wanted me to invite the journalists local and international.
Why? I asked.
Because I want to denounce Museveni. It is time the whole world came to know who
Museveni really is
I stopped the general in his tracks.
You cannot do that now. This is 1997 and Museveni has just been elected president (in
1996) under a new constitution. He is in his first year. He is still very popular. You cant
denounce him now. You will get nothing. You will get headlines for a week or two, then what
next? You will be forgotten because you cannot take on Museveni now! I counselled.
Tinyefuza as if possessed barked at me: What? You mean I do not know what I
am doing? You
The situation was getting tricky both of us had been drinking and were literally shouting
at each other.
Okay, okay, I told the general. If you really want the press conference, give me the
money tomorrow and I shall organise it. But you wont get anything beyond headlines for a
week or two. Why dont you wait around election time in 2001? Then you can denounce
Museveni and may be stand against him for president? That will be the right time
Tinyefuza was seething with anger and pain. But we did not fight. Instead he retired to the
main house.
I slept in his guesthouse.
I did not see Tinyefuza in the morning. When I called him later, he was now hesitant about
the press conference.
But the general remained paranoid for several days. He kept saying they were planning
to kill him. They were even tapping his phones.
Some nights he would call me 10 or 20 times. He would demand to know where I was or
why I was allowing them to tap my phone and thus spy on him in the process.
Once, I lost my temper and asked him why he kept calling me if he thought I was a spy
for the system that he had, in any case, helped to create.
Tinyefuza apologised apparently because he realised I was one of the few real friends he
still had.
During those days, I came to learn about many sensitive things good and bad that
happened between Museveni and his lieutenants like Tinyefuza during the NRA bush days
and between the day they took power in January 1986 and 1996.
Some of Tinyefuzas complaints were about legitimate national issues. Some were really
petty soldiering stuff like Museveni banning everyone else from having women in the
bush except, allegedly, for three top commanders. Tinyefuza said that violating that
ban was one of the reasons Museveni had arrested and detained him in the bush.
About the same time in 1997, General Salim Saleh started wooing Tinyefuza back into the
fold. But Tinyefuza remained stubborn and suspicious even of Saleh.
He told me that, among other things, Saleh had offered him a capitulation package of
Shs 800 million from the army veterans fund.
Saleh once spent the whole night at Tinyefuzas house, begging him to accept to be
rehabilitated.
Saleh finally won and Tinyefuza capitulated.
There are many other things that Tinyefuza told friends back then when he was angry and
wounded.
In his anger, he remembered so many ugly things that had happened during the bush war
and in the war in northern Uganda.
Tinyefuza also complained about Museveni betraying allies and friends. In particular, he
highlighted the arrest and detention of Lt. Gen. Moses Ali (now first deputy prime minister)
after arms were allegedly planted on his premises.
Some of the revelations about the system were so sensitive I decided never to put them
in print and I shall forever honour that commitment to a former friend.
But why do I revisit bits of the past now? It is because in his latest confession and apology
to Museveni, Tinyefuza was so economical with the truth and is outright treacherous
betraying friends who gave him good advice that he often rejected.
It is of course good for Uganda that Tinyefuza and Museveni made up without spilling any
blood. Tinyefuza must, however, accept full and personal responsibility for whatever
happened.
It is only the whole truth that will set Tinyefuza completely free again.

Kazini says intrigue could destroy UPDF
By Ogen Kevin Aliro
June 23, 2003
Ready to face criminal court at the Hague
Former Army Commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini has said he is ready to be tried by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to clear his name.
I am tired of being labelled a criminal by the press and those who have access to the media,
the former army commander said on the weekend in an exclusive interview with The Monitor.
Kazini said that he has been forced to break his principle of silence because of unfair criticism
and trumped up allegations against him.
Why is the press especially against me? Kazini asked in reference to a story in the New
Vision where he was accused of buying as army commander a Range Rover that cost Shs
340 million.
You could see from that story that someone is just after me as Kazini. These were not my
personal vehicles but the official fleet of the army commander.
He said that all the proper procedures were followed through the Military Tender Board and the
Bank of Uganda.
According to Kazini, no one concerned questioned the decision to buy the vehicles, yet it is now
being used against him.
I did not break into Bank of Uganda or commandeer a bullion van. And when I was leaving
the office I handed over the fleet to the new army commander. I never took the vehicles to my
home.
Kazini accused the New Vision journalists, Mr Grace Matsiko and Mr Emmy Allio, of waging
personal vendettas against him.
Kazini said that he never went to Britain to personally inspect the vehicles as alleged.
Even no driver went to Britain to learn how to drive the Range Rover. You can ask the Cooper
Motors people through whom the Military Tender Board ordered the vehicles, he said.
Smell of hypocrisy
Kazini said that the army commanders fleet is renewed whenever necessary.
Lt. Gen. Elly Tumwine used to have a fleet that he passed on. When Maj. Gen. Mugisha
Muntu became the army commander, he had a Cross Country, the best that was available. The
army later bought for him a new fleet of V8s that even the president did not have at the time.
Those were the state-of-the-art vehicles of that time and the records are there to show how much
they cost, he said.
Kazini said that the army commander has some status that justifies certain facilities.
If they now dont want the fleet, let them sell it!
Does Kazini not see the point made by presidential adviser John Nagenda (in his Saturday
column) that the cost of the army commanders vehicle is the equivalent of 3,400 monthly
salaries at Shs 100,000 each?
The former army commander said that there is a smell of hypocrisy there.
That Nagenda [and the others] are at Kampala Club drinking everyday. Whose money is that
they are always drinking? he said.
I am witch-hunted because am not a hypocrite, Kazini said.
It is always Kazini they talk about. How many houses does [former army commander] Lt.
Gen. Jeje Odongo have? How much property does Mugisha Muntu have? Why dont people
write about that too?
How about the Porter Commission and the UN Panel reports that accuse him of plundering the
resources of the DR Congo?
Kazini said that all the allegations are trumped up.
That was not fair judgement. I gave Porter all the facts but instead he turned the information I
gave him against me. Last month I made my written defence and challenged the UN Panel in
Nairobi, Kazini said.
The general said that some people exonerated in Porters later report used to visit the judge
at night.
For me I refused. I said I will never go to Justice Porters house, definitely not at night,
Kazini said.
Justice Porter last evening laughed off the accusation from Kazini.
Its a totally untrue allegation, Justice Porter said when told of the accusation.
He said that the inquiry was not a single-handed project and ruled out any suggestions that the
commission was unfair to the former army commander.
The report is available, the evidence is available, anybody can get it and read it. I did not make
the report alone. There were two other commissioners. That allegation cannot be true, Justice
Porter said.
Kazini wouldnt agree, though.
If they say I am a criminal, I am ready to go to Luzira prison or to face the gallows, Kazini
said. Let them take me to the International Criminal Court!
Kazini said that he expects to get more justice from the ICC than he did from Justice Porter and
the UN Panel.
Supposing the ICC indicted him?
If I am proved a criminal, I am not afraid of even death. Do you know to how many frontlines
I have been? But in the end, they would have sacrificed me for nothing, he said.
Kazini said that his only crime in the Congo was that he killed terrorists.
I destroyed the terrorists who were disturbing the country [Uganda] from the Rwenzoris and
Congo. But all that is now not being talked of as a credit.
Management of the army
Well, is he not the one also blamed for causing fighting between Uganda and Rwanda in the
Congolese city of Kisangani in 1999 and 2000?
Kazini said that those who are honest know the truth.
I dont know what people are looking for from me. Was I alone in the Congo? On whose
mandate did I go to Congo? he asked.
There are many factors to consider when two foreign armies end up fighting each other in a
foreign land. The bottom line was whether we should humanise or dehumanise the Congolese.
Kazini also dismissed accusations that, as army commander, he mismanaged the army.
Kazini said that he is the first army commander to hand over in an orderly way, with files and
reports all in order.
I never received any report when I took over as army commander. They only gave me one
rubber stamp and that flag the instrument of command.
Kazini said that some past commanders even stole spoons and carpets before handing over their
official residences.
Kazini said that the so-called conflict in the UPDF between the semiliterate and the
intellectuals is something used by a few people who want to destroy the country and the
army.
I did not make a coup detat in the army. I was appointed army commander because after 23
years of service I had achieved something. If they want to blame the one who appointed me, let
them say it.
According to Kazini, the so-called intellectuals are sowing intrigue and forming cliques that
might destroy the army as an institution.
The so-called intellectuals are a danger to this country. Let us wait and see what will come
from them, he said.
The former army commander also said that he does not understand what criteria some officers
use to consider themselves intellectuals while reducing others to semi-illiterates.
That is a big puzzle to me. We can all read our names. What have the intellectuals done that
outsmarts others?
Kazini said that army knowledge is something you acquire through experience, practice and
commitment to a cause, especially when defending the nation.
He added: May be if they were scientists, making atomic bombs and drugs to cure Aids and
other matters of hi-tech... But this normal routine and flat knowledge of the army? Intellectuals
who can not develop others; what kind of intellectuals are those? Kazini said.
Kazini, however, gave a positive review of his successor, Maj. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima.
He is a person who does not hurry his decisions. I think he will do well if they do not confuse
him, Kazini said.
Look out for the complete interview in The Monitor on Wednesday.