----- Original Message ----- 
From: Elum aniap Godfrey Ayoo 
To: [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] 
Cc: Edward Mulindwa 
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 10:47 PM
Subject: Museveni meets Eriya Kategaya 


Museveni meets Eriya Kategaya 
By David Kibirige 
September 28, 2003

      KAMPALA - President Yoweri Museveni has finally held a meeting with former first deputy prime minister, Mr Eriya Kategaya. 

      The Presidential Press Secretary Ms Mary Karooro Okurut on Saturday morning confirmed that the meeting took place.

      "Yes, it is true the president met Kategaya in Soroti, sometime back, but I do not have details of what transpired," she said. 

      Kategaya together with former ministers Jaberi Bidandi Ssali (Local Government), Sarah Namusoke Kiyingi (State for Internal Affairs), and Miria Matembe (Ethics and Integrity) were dropped in a Cabinet reshuffle on May 23.

      The four were opposed to amending the 1995 constitution to allow Mr Museveni run for a third term.

      The four have since been roundly criticised by Movement functionaries - close to the president.

      Sunday Monitor learnt that senior citizens from Ankole decided to initiate talks between Museveni and Kategaya. 

      Former managing director of the defunct Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB), Dr Frank Mwine reportedly led the move for reconciliation.

      Kategaya was driven to Soroti, where Museveni has pitched camp to oversee army operations against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels led by Mr Joseph Kony.

      In the meeting, Kategaya reportedly told Museveni that he still stood by his earlier position of opposing the constitutional amendment to allow him stand for another term. 

      Sources close to the meeting said Kategaya assured Museveni that he [Kategaya] could not work with any group aimed at destabilising the country by force of arms. 

      Museveni's concern is alleged to have been Kategaya's presence at the swearing in ceremony of Rwandan president Paul Kagame on September 12 at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.

      Also present at the swearing in were East African Legislative Assembly member, Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu and the Secretary General of the East African Community, 

      Maj. Amanya Mushega. Both opposed giving Museveni another presidential term. 
      After the swearing in ceremony, Museveni reportedly never waited to be served lunch. He immediately left for Entebbe.

      Ms Karooro, however, downplayed Museveni's skipping of lunch. "It was not only President Museveni who did not have lunch. Even Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo did not wait for lunch," she said.

      Okurut said relations between Rwanda and Uganda were improving. A member of the inauguration committee in Kigali said Kategaya, Mushega and Muntu were invited as private guests.

      "Even if you look at the budget you will find that we did not fund those people to come to Kigali. Besides, it would be an insult to assume that Kigali sponsored Kategaya, Muntu and Mushega; the cost of flying to Kigali is less than two hundred dollars per person. Those are old allies who usually fly to Kigali as they have many friends here," said the Rwandan official who preferred anonymity.

      Another sacked minister Bidandi told Sunday Monitor on Saturday morning that he had never met Museveni since May.

      "I have never met the president ever since I left cabinet," he said. Kategaya declined to speak to Sunday Monitor on Saturday. He said he would not interrupt his leisure time because he was playing tennis at Kampala Club.

     


© 2003 The Monitor Publications



"And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, 'When will you be satisfied?' We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities (.) No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream". (Martin Luther King, 1964 Nobel Peace prize laureate, assassinated for his struggle)

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