How Ecweru and Mukula fell out

By Moses Odongo

When disaster prepardness minister Musa Ecweru was accused of defilement last week, he blamed his long term comrade Captain Mike Mukula of hatching a plot to ruin his reputation.

Ecweru and Mukula are considered the main pillars of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the Teso region. They worked closely when Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance Army invaded the region in 2003.

Mukula was the state minister for health and Soroti Municipality MP while Ecweru was Kasese resident district commisioner. The two abandoned their offices and rushed to Teso to form a militia group, popularly known as the Arrow Boys, which helped the army to evict the LRA from eastern Uganda.

Mukula became the commander in chief of the Arrow Boys while Ecweru, who had military experience as commander of a rebel movement in the late 1980s, became the coordinator.

Ecweru and Mukula were joined by the then Gulu RDC Max Omeda, Captain Emilly Otekat (then LC5 chairman Soroti) and Kaberamaido county MP John Eresu.

As Mukula retreated to his duties in Kampala after the defeat of the LRA, Ecweru was transferred to Soroti as the RDC to continue monitoring the fragile peace achieved.

Ecweru returned what elders termed as ‘sanity’ to the streets of Soroti. The youth, who used to loiter around the town, were sent back to the villages as the army patrolled the streets. The culture of boys belting trousers midway down their buttocks and girls dressing skimpily reduced as a result of Ecweru’s campaign. Soroti became a town ‘for those who had what do to’. He gained more popularity by flushing out stubborn herdsmen who were encroaching on Teso wetlands.

The 2006 elections came. Mukula, like all other ministers from Teso, lost his parliamentary seat to an FDC candidate. At the same time, Ecweru secured an MP seat in the newly created Amuria district, leading to his subsequent appointment as minister.

Mukula, an established businessman, rarely visited Soroti after he lost the elections, saying he did not want to interfere in the work of the newly elected leaders. When he was still a minister and MP, he used to send his personal trucks to pick garbage in Soroti. After his downfall, Soroti town was choking with garbage. Some town dwellers took to the streets demanding his return.

Shortly afterwards, Mukula was arrested over mismanagement of GAVI funds and remanded to Luzira Prison. Teso politicians, led by Ecweru, visited Mukula in jail. Ecweru even stood surety for him when he was granted bail.

Mukula spent a long time without going to his homeland. When he became critical of the NRM leadership, many saw it as betrayal of the party, where he is still the vice-chairman in charge of eastern Uganda.

In interviews, Mukula started criticising the lack of democracy and freedom of speech in the NRM. “The moment someone comes out like I did, they are seen as being rebellious or anti-establishment,” he told Saturday Vision on July 12. “Some of my colleagues fear to speak out for fear of being misunderstood. If you are misunderstood and you are a minister, you lose your job in the next reshuffle.”

He also suggested for President Museveni to step down, like Tanzania’s Nyerere did, and “allow a new flow of ideas”.

Mukula was particularly bitter about the cases brought against him in the Global Fund and GAVI Fund scam, calling them political persecution.

“The appointment of the Ogoola commission was political. The directive to the IGG to investigate came from the highest office and the report was submitted to the highest office, yet the IGG is supposed to be independent,” he said in the same interview.

He also criticised what he called selective justice. “The Auditor General through reports to Parliament has implicated senior elements in the Government but my Government is silent about it. Why are the DPP and the IGG not swinging into action?” he asked.

On the eve of President Museveni’s tour of Teso in August, Mukula returned to Soroti, escorted by army officers. He said he had gone to receive his party boss. As he hosted visitors, military policemen, commanded by Maj. Alfred Opio, surrounded his home and disarmed his escorts.

Maj. Opio said he was instructed by the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) to carry out the operation because the soldiers did not have permission to work in the area. But Mukula claimed it was a plot by prominent Teso leaders, particularly a minister, to embarrass him.

In an interview with The New Vision’s sister paper Etop, Ecweru dismissed the claim, arguing that ministers do not deploy escorts.

When on September 26, the media received court summons for Ecweru to answer charges of defilement, the latter immediately pointed fingers at Mukula.

“I stood surety for him in the GAVI Fund case. But when he publicly said the President and Mbabazi had failed the party, I disagreed with him,” he said.

According to Ecweru, his speech in Bukedea during the President’s Teso tour in particular angered Mukula.

“I warned the agitators that they would fight this fight alone and be isolated since the Teso youth had decided to support the President and take advantage of the progressive programmes of the Government.”

The fact that a copy of the summons was put in MPs’ pigeon holes before he had even received it, was proof that he was being framed, he added.

But Mukula denied any involvement. He told Saturday Vision that he was too busy with his business to get involved in such machinations. “Ecweru is my brother and a very good friend,” Mukula said. “I think that is being diversionary. I sympathise with him and will support him in this trying moment.”

Despite such niceties, the Ecweru-Mukula affair deeply worries Teso elders. Many do not want to discuss the issue with the press. A senior religious leader from Teso said: “If it is true that Ecweru and Mukula are conflicting, then Teso has no future.”

Is the defilement charge genuine? Is it caused by political rivalry among the giants of Teso? Or is it a case of a falling tree bringing down others? Only time and a DNA test will tell.