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Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 9:57 PM
Subject: Museveni denies plot to oust Moi


> Museveni denies plot to oust Moi
> By Badru D. Mulumba
> April 20, 2004
>
> KAMPALA - State House yesterday denied a newspaper claim that President
> Museveni plotted to topple Kenya's former leader Daniel arap Moi as early
as
> 1986.
>
> State House also denied claims in the same paper that Mr Museveni
contacted
> former Kenyan vice president, the late Kijana Wamalwa, to lead a group of
> insurgents that were being trained in Uganda for the mission.
>
> The Sunday Standard reported yesterday that Kenya was supposed to be the
> first government to fall followed by Rwanda, Zaire, and Sudan - all,
> allegedly, at the planning and execution of Uganda. The Kenyan troops
would
> then be used in the operations in Rwanda, then Zaire, and then Sudan, The
> Sunday Standard reported.
>
> The Kenyan paper claims that in the end, the troops that had been
marshalled
> for the Nairobi takeover ended up fighting in Rwanda and some became part
of
> the Rwanda Patriotic Front.
>
> But Museveni's acting spokesman, Mr Onapito Ekomoloit, described the
report
> as "absolute nonsense". "Definitely the Kenyan regime would have
complained,
> but it didn't," he said. "NRM doesn't believe in coups and has never
> believed in coups. The President does not believe in coups."
>
> The Standard wrote: "The guerrilla units that would have taken power in
> these four countries were trained in Uganda and supported by the country's
> top leadership as payback for the contribution of their nationals to the
> victory of the National Resistance Army in 1986.
>
> "Museveni's point man in Kenya was reportedly John Steven Ochieng Amoke
> alias 'Brigadier John Odongo', leader of the alleged February Eighteen
> Revolutionary Army (FERA)."
>
> The Standard went on: "Odongo came to light in the early 1990s after Kenya
> requested that he be extradited. "Uganda had by 1994 reportedly trained
> 1,000 Kenyan guerrillas in military techniques, jungle warfare and
> paramilitary commando operations."
>
> Said the paper: "Although the Ugandan leader had seconded his own brother,
> Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh to FERA as its strategist, his imperial designs were
> checked by one problem: there were no credible Kenyan leaders willing to
> lead a military assault on Nairobi. His preferred choice, Michael Wamalwa
> Kijana was a reluctant icon."
>
> Speaking to The Monitor by telephone, Ekomoloit added: "The reports are
> completely outrageous and any decent newspaper should have talked to us
> before publishing such information."
>
> The Standard report is based on the account of Mr Patrick Wangamati, who
> reportedly was FERA's political leader.
>
> The Kenyan plans were reportedly overtaken by the Rwanda invasion. The
paper
> reported that military officers in Uganda and Libya, the two sponsors of
the
> guerrilla groups, felt that time was running out for Kenyan guerrillas.
>
> "The Rwandese rebels were waiting for the completion of the Kenya mission
> before embarking on their own against Juvenal Habyarimana's regime," it
> said. Museveni also reportedly "became exasperated by Brigadier John Odong
> and appalled by his tardiness".
>
> The paper said that Museveni began shopping for another leader for FERA
and
> eyed Kijana, before dropping him after he reportedly failed to "attend a
> meeting with a Museveni emissary in London".
>
> The paper adds that Kenya's current Roads and Transport minister Raila
> Odinga was reportedly approached but he was not interested or keen to use
> military power to oust Moi's then-ruling party, Kanu.
>
> This, the Standard said, was because FERA had reportedly not crafted any
> tangible plan of how to grab power. A number of Kenyan recruits reportedly
> got disillusioned with Odongo and went to fight alongside the Rwanda
> Patriotic Front.
>
> The paper reports that in retaliation, Moi "upped pressure on the
> international community to admonish Museveni for sponsoring anti-Kenya
> elements and financed insurgence in Uganda and the string of cattle raids
in
> eastern Uganda to confuse Museveni." Kenya also reportedly planned to
close
> borders with Uganda, thus threatening its exports, the paper said.
>
> "When it became obvious that Odongo and Wangamati were too weak to launch
a
> guerrilla war, and when the UN and foreign nations started putting
pressure
> on Uganda, Museveni threw the FERA leader into detention," the Standard
> reported.
>
> "Some of the troops were rounded up and conscripted into the armies of
> Rwandese and Congolese rebels while others were given work in Uganda's
> prison industries," the paper reported. Lt. Gen. Saleh was not available
for
> comment.
>
> Moi's KANU party was defeated in a general election in December 2002.
>

> © 2004 The Monitor Publications
-----------------------------

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