Two chief body guards of Lt. Gen Peter Elwelu, the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) Commander Land Forces have been arrested after The Capital Times ran a story that 3-star general had run mad and was put on specialized medication under the watchful eye of UPDF Medical team.
The UPDF spokesperson Brig. Richard Karemire on Monday, March 1, 2020 categorically denied reports of Gen Elwelu’s illness.
The latest information that The Capital Times has exclusively ascertained is that the two main body guards of Gen.Elwelu have been arrested by CMI military Operatives and are currently undergoing vigorous interrogation for purportedly unleashing the information to the press about the health conditions of their principal.
The arrested guards have been identified as Stg.Farouk Sadique Mwa and Corporal Batarigaya Boaz who are currently detained at Mbuya military lower quarter guard. The two are being manned by Sgt Odong who is the staff sergeant for the station.
According to our impeccable sources, the two Gen.Elwelu’s senior escorts were picked on Monday evening from Bombo military barracks and whisked away before they could even be allowed to explain themselves.
Their arrest comes after coarse talking but smiley, Gen.Elwelu talked to his seniors on Monday morning about the prospects of who could have been behind the leaking of his personal information to outsiders.
It’s said that the two escorts have not been in good books with their commander for more than a year. It’s one of the reasons that when the information about Elwelu’s health circulated, security immediately picked them.
The two body guards spent better part of their Tuesday being grilled by a team of no nonsense JATT officers which was headed by Deputy CMI boss Lt.Col Elias Byaruhanga.
When the story was published about Gen.Elwelu’s health, to prove that he was alive and kicking, the commander of land forces did alive interview on Facebook with his personal secretary one Patricia Apolot but the general never looked to be in his comic lifestyle.
Gen. Elwelu is remembered for his leadership role in the 2016 attack on Charles Wesley Mumbere’s palace in Kasese in 2016.
In the media, Elwelu, now a Lt. general, has actively defended his decision to attack the palace, contending that the people inside were all armed fighters, including Congolese fighters, and saying that he now sleeps well at night.
He was promoted to chief of land forces, one of the highest-ranking positions in the army.
Speaking to NTV on the day the armed forces attacked the palace in 2016, Brig Elwelu repeatedly referred to those gunned down at the palace as “terrorists”, and argued that King Mumbere had dishonoured two ultimatums agreed with President Museveni.
“We had to go for these terrorists, they were hiding in the palace,” Brig Elwelu told NTV Uganda.
The government has arrested and charged more than 180 people, including the cultural institution’s king, known as the Omusinga, with murder, treason, and terrorism, among other charges.
None of the 180 are members of the police or military and no one has been charged for the killing of the civilians, including children.
In 2017, Brig. Karemire Brig. Richard Karemire, told Human Rights Watch that there has been no investigation into the military’s conduct and that none is planned.
The government is under an obligation to investigate any operation where there is such loss of life and should do so promptly.
But given limited prospects for a credible follow up by domestic authorities, an independent, impartial investigation, with international expertise, should be urgently conducted, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 95 people in six sub counties of the Kasese district, including many families of the people killed, and reviewed video and photographs of the events. Many people voiced significant fears of reprisals given the presence of security forces in the area.
Human Rights Watch found evidence, including accounts by confidential sources and medical personnel who witnessed the events, that security officials had misrepresented the number of people killed and eliminated evidence of the children’s deaths.
