Revealed: How Driver, Sowedi, masterminded, betrayed Gen. Kale Kayihura
March 4, 2023, marked 5 years since retired General Kale Kayihura, a once powerful police chief, was removed from the office he had held for 13 years.
The high-ranking UPDF officer was sacked by his commander-in-chief on social media platform Twitter, marking his downfall from the echelons of power.
A man who formerly sneezed and caught the whole nation caught cold was now a suspect of aggravated crimes chargeable under the military court.
The former blue-eyed boy of President Museveni would later be arrested by the army, charged in the Court Martial, detained for 6 months at Makindye Barracks, released, denied freedom of movement for 5 years, and later acquitted on August 30, 2023.
A few days into his freedom, a confession has emerged from police driver Abdallah Sowedi, revealing the clandestine web of deceit and betrayal he had meticulously devised to engineer Kayihura’s downfall.
In a startling revelation that is likely to send shockwaves through law enforcement circles, this rogue police driver has come forward with shocking details involving leaking sensitive information to external forces, fabricating evidence of corruption, and orchestrating a carefully timed series of events that would not only tarnish Kayihura’s reputation but also lead to his eventual removal from office.
This deeply unsettling account of betrayal and intrigue will leave many both within and outside the police force astounded by the audacity and cunning displayed by this trusted driver.
“I moved to whoever wanted to hear and exposed the rot, which was in the police under the blue-eyed boys. Sometimes I wonder why Ugandans continue to believe that Kale helped the police.
He mismanaged public funds to sustain intelligence units to keep him in office,” reads Sowedi’s missive this website has landed on, which he penned a couple of years ago after Kayihura’s arrest and subsequent dismissal from office.
Sowedi’s gripping narrative also sheds light on the dark motives and methods he used to involve all those known to Kayihura as his right-hand men in his relentless campaign against the former IGP.
“I recall the day I made a report to the President, and I knew it was going to reach, but it hit my mind when the then Director of Intelligence, Col. [Herbert] Nabimanya, and his team took my photo at the quarter guard in Entebbe, and before I could return to Kampala, General Kale and his team had my face and report,” reads his missive.
Sowedi enlisted the help of a few trusted confidants within the force, and together they initiated a sequence of events. For example, he worked closely with Mohamood Masaba Mutenyo, aka Bicupuli, the current Mayor of Mbale Industrial Division, who then accessed Kayihura at any time of day and night, having traded fake intelligence about former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, who had launched his bid to tussle it out with President Yoweri Museveni on the ballot in the 2016 general elections.
Masaba, through the State House channels, had fabricated a report alleging that Mbabazi gave him money to procure 400 Toyota Premios from Kampala Modernity Bond to coordinate his political activities across the country.
Masaba and Sowedi, who had then turned into his personal drivers, used their ways to leak the information to the president. Due to too much pressure, the president reportedly linked Masaba to Kayihura to manage the situation.
To Masaba, this was an opportunity to enrich himself. Whenever he ran out of cash, he would access Kayihura’s office, and unlike other people who were refrained from entering the IGP’s office with their cellular phones, he freely entered with his phones. On several occasions, he threatened to revert to the president and let him know that there was not enough facilitation from the police to coordinate his activities. This would throw Kayihura in utter panic, and millions would be mobilized to facilitate the man from the Bamasaaba land.
This peddling of lies in the political situation became a thriving business, and since Sowedi’s supervisor, SCP Geoffrey Musana, had lost his office, the former switched to driving Masaba. This became an opportunity for Sowedi to access police secrets, which Masaba would discuss freely with the then IGP to streamline the political strategies.
However, in the background, Sowedi was determined to continuously build his blackmail strategy against the former IGP.
It was not until Sowedi was captured on camera by the staff of Col. Nabimanya at the State House quarter guard Entebbe that he realized some of his delivered reports were going back to police.
Sowedi claimed that he did this out of frustration due to his failure to be regularized in the police force despite serving for a long time as a senior driver under RRU and CMI. He felt that he was deprived of earning handsomely, which made it very difficult to sustain the family’s needs.
In our next episode, we will expose Sowedi’s full confession and litany of heinous crimes, treachery, and the fragile boundaries between loyalty and betrayal.
