Where is Winnie Byanyima?

May 20, 2003

In the second week of February, Winnie Byanyima, the MP for Mbarara Municipality sought the permission of the Speaker of Parliament to attend three meetings in South Africa

By Asuman Bisiika

In the second week of February, Winnie Byanyima, the MP for Mbarara Municipality sought the permission of the Speaker of Parliament to attend three meetings in South Africa.

The first meeting was to take place in Johannesburg on February 22. The second one was to be held in Pretoria between March 23 and March 26 and the third one in Cape Town from March 31 to April 2. She was supposed to return in the second week of April.

On April 10, she wrote to the Speaker of Parliament explaining her failure to return as scheduled. She cited medical problems. However, her prolonged absence from Parliament has been the object of speculations that she might have joined her husband in exile in South Africa.

But Mr. Kagole Kivumbi, the Public Relations Officer for Parliament said that Byanyima’s explanations for her failure to return as scheduled were sufficient. Asked what parliament would do if they found out that she was not really sick, Kagole Kivumbi said that there is nothing Parliament would do.

“I think you should also appreciate the fact that Parliament is now in recess and therefore there is no need for her to seek leave of absence,” said Kivumbi.

Before she left for South Africa, Byanyima had alleged that the Ugandan government was training Interahamwe militias to go and destabilise Rwanda. The Interahamwe militias are blamed for the prosecution of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Senior government officials condemned her and said that she should be prosecuted for her utterances.

Indeed in a recent meeting with senior members of Reform Agenda, President Yoweri Museveni said that there were intelligence reports indicating that Byanyima was involved in treasonable activities.

Combatants of the People’s Redemption Army (PRA) who were taken prisoners by the UPDF in Ituri are said to have implicated Byanyima in the mobilisation and recruitment of PRA rebels. Byanyima’s husband, Kizza Besigye is alleged to be the political head of the PRA that is commanded by renegade UPDF officers Cols. Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale.

Commenting on Byanyima’s exile speculations, a political analyst in Kampala said that Winnie’s prolonged absence from Kampala may be intended to heal divisions in the Reform Agenda.

“I would take it Winnie thinks she will re-invent herself when she returns from a long absence. Otherwise before she left, she was at the centre of wrangles in the Reform Agenda,” said the analyst.

The analyst also said that Byanyima’s depiction of Kampala to the donor community as a repressive regime cannot hold any more because she has made provocative remarks about the government but still walks a free woman.

“I think the donors will start looking at her negative depictions of the government as unrepresentative of the situation in Uganda,” said the analyst.

A lengthy document which this writer saw corroborates the Kampala analyst’s view. Byanyima seems to have had run-ins with James Musinguzi, Betty Kamya and other senior members of Reform Agenda as early as mid last year.

In a meeting on June 15, 2002, chaired by Sam Njuba, senior members of Reform Agenda expressed open discontent with what they called her illogical fight against the reorganisation of Reform Agenda.

A State House source talking on condition of anonymity, said that government has a solid treason case against Byanyima. “She has a case to answer. Her involvement in the PRA recruitment network is overwhelming. If the state is interested in prosecuting her, she would go down; there is no doubt about it,” the State House source said.

The State House source added: “The good thing is that Winnie Byanyima knows that the government this time has a solid case against her. She knows the state knows how she used to talk to James Opoka and how she mobilised for PRA. But the bad thing is that she has been deceiving some members of the donor community that hers is a case of political conscience.”

Byanyima is also said to be moving around the region. She is said to have recently visited Zimbabwe, Kenya (allegedly for medical check up) and other countries in the region. There are also some reports that her health is poor.

But a senior official in the Reform Agenda told this writer that Byanyima was in South Africa and would soon be back to Uganda.

Pressed for a definite day for her return, the pRA official said Byanyima would be in Uganda within 30 days from Saturday May 17, 2003. He insisted that the government does not have any serious case against Byanyima.

“The only thing the government has on Byanyima is her allegations that Uganda was recruiting Intera-hamwe to go and destabilise Rwanda. The government just wants to scare Byanyima into exile. But I can assure you that she is coming back home within a period of 30 days,” said the PRA man.

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