Govt is already printing cash for 2016 - Besigye

 

By Stephen Kafeero

In Summary

When he was pressed for further details after the show, Dr Besigye said the bullion van was taken and offloaded at the home of President Museveni’s brother Gen Salim Saleh in Garuga

KAMPALA.
Former FDC president Kizza Besigye has said the process of printing money to steal the 2016 elections has already started.

Besigye was speaking on KFM political talk show, Hard Talk, yesterday.

He said a bullion van full of money was recently offloaded at the home of an army General in Garuga near the Lake Victoria shore off Entebbe Road. He further said the guards had even stolen some of the cash.

When he was pressed for further details after the show, Dr Besigye said the bullion van was taken and offloaded at the home of President Museveni’s brother Gen Salim Saleh in Garuga.

“The money was offloaded from the truck at the old home of Gen Saleh in Garuga and was later loaded onto a chopper,” Besigye said.

Dr Besigye’s claims provoked Gen Saleh into a furious reaction, describing the allegations as outrageous.

“He is mad. That’s total madness. How can that happen? If he can say that, then he needs serious treatment. He should go for psychological treatment,” Gen Saleh charged.

Bank of Uganda Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile recently said he was misled by the government into unknowingly financing the electioneering of 2011, an action that nearly plunged the economy into a crisis. Mr Mutebile said although the Central Bank did not directly print money for the elections, there were indirect expenditures by the government into areas that were not transparent and the money could have ended up in political electioneering.

During the talk show, Dr Besigye, a three-time presidential candidate, said he is not focusing on 2016 general elections but on a campaign of civil disobedience to remove President Museveni from power.

“My focus is not 2016; it is about the liberation from those who captured power in 1986 through a national defiance campaign. If the campaign is able to deliver before 2016, well and good but if it does not we will continue until it delivers,” Besigye said without elaborating how the defiance campaign will work.

Senior presidential advisor on political affairs Moses Byaruhanga, also a panellist at the show, said Uganda is ready to change leadership through a democratic process. “The fact that President Museveni has not been defeated doesn’t mean that there is no democracy in Uganda,” he said.