Museveni appoints new ESO boss

By Charles Etukuri

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has replaced the long serving Director General of External Security Organisation (ESO) Robert Masolo, after the expiry of his contract, with a former Ugandan ambassador Joseph Ocwet who is based in London.

The Minister in Charge of Security Mary Karoro Okurut on Thursday evening said she had not yet received communication from the President about the changes and promised to communicate once the letter came in.

“I have not yet got the communication to that effect but if it comes in then I will inform the nation. However in case it is true, these are normal changes and the President has the prerogative to make changes at that level,” Karoro said.

Sources privy to the changes told New Vision that Masolo has been seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he will be deployed in the Foreign Service.

Before his appointment, Ocwet had left Foreign Service where he served as Uganda’s Ambassador to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but had not yet retired from Uganda government service.

In 2004, Ocwet was involved in the efforts to mediate between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels during the Juba peace talks.

Ocwet is one of the directors of the London based charity, Africa Relief Trust, which is involved in humanitarian activities in northern Uganda.

In an email he sent to New Vision shortly after General David Sejusa returned to the country on December 2014, Ocwet, revealed his role in his return. He said the return of Sejusa’s return was on basis of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between the President and the General. 

“Through my personal initiative, I humbly requested the President to pardon Gen. Sejusa and allow him to return to Uganda without being arrested or prosecuted.

Therefore, the President gave me permission and authority to find Gen. Sejusa and communicate an offer of a presidential olive branch to him as soon as possible” the email read in part.

In an interview with New Vision though, Sejusa denied ever meeting Ocwet.

“I don’t know him as matter of fact. I have never talked to him but I knew he existed as an operative. Actually I was shocked when I met the President and he told me he had sent his man to talk to me,” Sejusa said.