‘Obote Divided Museveni, Lutwa’

By A. G. Musamaliand James OwekaPRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni yesterday said former president Dr. Milton Obote caused confusion between him (Museveni) and General Tito Okello.Museveni was speaking at the funeral service of Tito Okello’s widow, Esther Dyee Okello Lutwa.Dyee Okello, also mother to sports state minister Henry Oryem Okello, died at Mulago Hospital on Friday from injuries she sustained in a motor accident at Page Bridge in Kitgum where she had gone to attend her husband’s last funeral rites.The service was held at All Saints Cathedral, Nakasero.Museveni said while in exile in Tanzania in 1971, President Julius Nyerere introduced him to General Tito Okello.He said he later met Okello in Bukoba, Tanzania where they worked together to overthrow the Idi Amin regime.“And as usual, Obote started confusing us. The whole of 1971, we were struggling to agree on what step to take,” said Museveni.“He (Tito) decided to remain with Obote but my followers and I separated from Obote. Because of Obote’s politics, we could not work together with Tito,” he added.Museveni said when the Tanzanian government decided to rout out Idi Amin, he was commanding his own group, which came through Mbarara.“We tried to fight Amin but we failed.”Museveni said he decided to go back and teach in Moshi where “I started staying in the neighbourhood of Okello’s family.”Museveni said the two families became very good friends, adding that they again met when he convinced Okello to return home in the mid-1990s.Museveni said he last talked to Dyee Okello when he appointed Oryem a state minister. He said his wife Janet recently asked him to discuss something with the widow but she died before he could fix an appointment.Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo in his sermon called on the Acholi to unite and work for the spiritual and general peace of the country.Oryem said death had robbed the country of many resourceful women over the last few months.“When I think of Esteri Kokundeka (Museveni’s mother), Rhoda Nsibambi, Jennifer Kutesa (Sam Kutesa’s wife), then I know how their children feel.”Ends