Former Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura who has been in the cold since his sacking close to three ago could be returning to government any time soon.
The man from Kisoro who is facing numerous charges in Military Court Martial has been quiet since he was removed from the powerful position where he was close to the president.
Latest information reaching website indicates that former IGP Gen Kale Kayihura is among those whose names have been hinted upon for potential Mulyagonja successor.
Irene Mulyagonja will be retiring early next month and the position will be vacant hence attracting many people’s interests.
A group of strong lobbyists, led by veteran journalist and informal Museveni advisor Andrew Mwenda, have been doing their best to influence the President’s decision in favor of Gen Kayihura who remains undeployed largely because of the criminal charges that continue hovering over his head. Sources say the Mwendas have thrice met at Imperial Royale Hotel where the Kayihura strategy has been discussed.
After building consensus on how the criminal charges in the military court can be expeditiously waived to declare the General from Kashagama a free man, the Mwendas then reached out to Gen Salim Saleh and Gen Muhoozi both of whom indicated they have no problem with the former Police chief becoming the next IGG.
Gratefully, Col Edith Nakalema (who heads the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) which has been accused by some of overshadowing the IGG and rendering her irrelevant) will naturally be very comfortable allying with Kayihura because the two in the past worked well together.
Nakalema was then the Defacto PPS in State House and Kayihura was then the very influential IGP who often spoke to and met Gen Museveni. In fact, State House sources say it was hard for any anti-Kayihura dossier to reach the HE for the period Nakalema was shepherding the PPS office.
Posting Kayihura as IGG would naturally enable Nakalema, whose ACU’s legal status continues to be challenged and questioned, to closely and more formally work with the IG which is a constitutionally-constituted body of government.
And that will be the best way to mend relations between ACU and the IG. Ordinarily Nakalema should be having her cases prosecuted through the IG but she has been avoiding the office to instead work with the DPP because she perceived Mulyagonja as lukewarm and cold towards her.
That uneasiness hasn’t been good for the fight against corruption that requires synergy and concerted efforts.
The uneasiness of the IG staff towards ACU only escalated in March when the IG offices were closed after refusal by the Rugunda taskforce to consider it an essential service provider yet at the same time, Nakalema’s ACU was designated so and they continued operating normally and had many high profile arrests (e.g. the one of OPM) which gave them a lot of publicity and thereby pushing the IG further into the periphery.
The shining of Nakalema was preceded by several public admonishments that Gen Museveni directed at the IGG and one time he even implied the IG office had been infiltrated by wrong elements (he likes sarcastically calling the kawukumi or weevils).