Mayombo Defends Arrest

Chief of Military Intelligence Lt. Col. Noble Mayombo has justified the arrest of Maj. Okwir Rabwoni, saying it was in the interest of Rabwoni and Ugandans safety, reports Elizabeth Kameo. "Our interest was not just to arrest Rabwoni. There were two things involved; the information he had given us was sensitive to the stability of Uganda, it was important for us to follow," Mayombo said on Radio One's Spectrum talk show, moderated by Anne Lydia Ssekandi on Thursday. He said, "It is in the interest of government that 22 million Ugandans are safe. It is in the interest of the military that the coming presidential election exercise is safe and Ugandans express their will without any intimidation or violence." Rabwoni, former head of presidential candidate Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye's youth desk and youth MP for western region, was arrested on Tuesday by the Military Police at Entebbe Airport after a three-hour stand-off with security agents. Mayombo said they arrested Rabwoni after they received information from him about election-related violence. He said, "We had to be able to decide whether we should carry out arrests or not, whether we should discuss with Dr. Besigye and Hajji Sebaggala about the violence-related accusations or not." "So it was very important for us to get details of what Rabwoni had said or whether it was true or not. Under the laws of Uganda, it is a crime to make a false report to a public officer," he said. Ends.