Friday 29 April 2011

‘Born again’ State security agent from Pastor Kayanja's church tortures Uganda opposition leader during arrest

FIRST WATCH: PASTOR KAYANJA'S 'BORN AGAIN' SHEEP ARRESTS OPPOSITION LEADER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoNt_RKhIdk


Besigye fighting for his life in Nairobi Hospital as a result of Kayanja’s Sheep


http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1153322/-/c25ci2z/-/index.html



Al Jazeera English: Ugandan Opposition Bundled On Pickup Truck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ZDrFm8Cy4



Several Christians have threatened to call off fellowship and quit Kayanja’s congregation if no decisive action is taken to have Arinaitwe isolated. Red Pepper Online has separately learnt that Arinaitwe is the man through whom Kayanja managed his public relations a few years ago when he came under scrutiny over sodomy allegations. Sources close to the Church have told Red Pepper Online that Arinaitwe is the conduit through whom Kayanja would mobilize support during his sodomy trials and tribulations. Strangely, according to Male, Arinaitwe was among officers police assigned to investigate Kayanja over several allegations some years back.The Males are celebrating that the curtains have finally fallen on Arinaitwe. At the Church, Arinaitwe is also in charge of security and protection of the offertory and tithe once it’s collected every after prayer services. He also oversees Kayanja’s security during crusades which the flamboyant pastor always organizes within Uganda and elsewhere in the great lakes region. (http://redpepper.co.ug/welcome/?p=7076)


…upon completion of training, he was first posted to police headquarters in Nsambya, where he did not stay long before he was attached to the security of Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre. Arinaitwe is a member of this church, along with several other senior and middle level police officers like spokeswoman, Judith Nabakooba, and is said to have been part of the investigations into allegations of sodomy against Kayanja. An avowed evangelical Christian, Arinaitwe, whose name is a direct Runyankore translation of Emmanuel, which means God is with us, perceived his recruitment into the police as a calling from God to evangelise the force and win over souls to him. Speaking assuredly at Mbarara Pentecostal Church sometime in 2009 with the kind of rhetoric only common with radical evangelicals, he is noted to have said that Uganda, under God’s direct watch and unction, was undergoing serious transformation. He challenged his listeners to remain steadfast in their faith and hope for the country and ensure they are a part of it. Arinaitwe is part of a cabal of radical evangelicals who were openly recruited into the Uganda Revenue Authority to supposedly clean up the rot in this institution and clandestinely into the police on the recommendation of top placed people in government.(see, Arinaitwe: God’s faithful who nearly killed Dr Besigye, http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13204&Itemid=59)



‘Born again’ state operative arrests Opposition leader in a cruel and degrading way

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1152856/-/c25wt6z/-/index.html


Unmasking Besigye’s tormentor

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1152902/-/c25w69z/-/index.html
By Richard Wanambwa

Posted Friday, April 29 2011 at 09:09

In Summary

Titbits on Arinaitwe
•A former classmate says at Ogut Primary School in Tororo Municipality, today’s showy Arinaitwe was by 1986 a bare-footed Jackson Kirunda.
•Then he was a quiet, disciplined chap who made no enemies – at least in public.
•Studied at Uganda Christian University where he obtained a SWSA Bachelor’s degree in 2006.
•On the streets, in the church and at shops, he starts his conversation with a calm Mukama ye bazibwe (Praise God) Christian tone.
•He is a CID officer attached to the Kireka-headquartered Rapid Response Unit.
It played out like a scene in a horror movie. A staccato of hits with the butt of a pistol and a hammer rapidly struck windows of the luxury V8 Toyota Land Cruiser, crumbling the glass shield in a pile.

Uniformed anti-riot policemen emerged to jet liquid pepper inside to saturate the vehicle carrying Uganda’s main opposition politician, Kizza Besigye. He and other occupants were left gasping for fresh air – their bodies burning.
Several cans of pepper had been downloaded, initially directly into the eyes of Dr Besigye, and later to soak his upper back after he hid his face in between the front seats of his luxury vehicle.

His driver, Fred Kato, suffered similar fate, forcing him to jump out of the saturated vehicle, only to land into a volley of kicks and punches unleashed by a cocktail of security operatives. At this time, the gun-totting and vicious operatives, had overpowered and arrested Dr Besigye’s aides; and grabbed him commando-style.

Uganda’s Black Mamba commandoes first played such a movie at the High Court in Kampala premises in 2005, coincidentally to re-arrest Besigye who by then had just been granted bail.

Face-down, the former personal physician to President Museveni, was dragged and thrown under seats on the back of a police pickup truck where patrol police usually carry unidentified corpses and accident victims.

Enraged MPs

Dr Besigye was none, but all the same menacingly thrown there, a filthy slot, outraging MPs during an afternoon debate and even the most conservative ruling NRM loyalists.

His crime according to Kampala Metropolitan police commander Grace Turyagumanawe, who was at the secene, was choosing to drive from Mulago Road junction to Wandegaya while police wanted him to take the Kitante Road. Moments later, the FDC president was a blind and deaf man.

As such when he later appeared before Nabweru Court Chief Magistrate Justine Atukwasa, head swollen and eyes blinded, the judicial officer stared at him in horror and let him go without a charge.

Ms Atukwasa had granted bail to the man at Nakasongola Magistrate’s Court only the previous day and a disfigured Besigye, leaning on shoulders of well-wishers to walk, contrasted with his Tuesday image who less than 24 hours ago offered spirited submission to secure bail after his defence attorneys failed to show up.

Nearby, several other gun-toting men in civilian stoked emotions outside by indiscriminately kicking and whipping perceived opposition supporters around.
This is Uganda, once described by former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the “Pearl of Africa”. It had turned into the paragon of violence as a combination of police and the military, alleging Besigye supporters pelted them with stones to provoke them, cracked teargas and live bullets on them.

The man of infamy who pepper-sprayed and shattered Dr Besigye’s vehicle window’s had hitherto been known to many as a quiet and obedient Christian.

The man in the picture

His name is Gilbert Bwana Arinaitwe. But a UPDF deserter, now living in Europe, who says they were bosom friends and classmates at Ogut Primary School in Tororo Municipality, insists today’s showy Arinaitwe was by 1986 a bare-footed Jackson Kirunda receiving whips from teacher Okwakol almost on daily basis for failing Mathematics and English assignments.

The contrast of his known humble beginnings, a supposedly prayerful life and an introvert’s posture were yesterday betrayed when the hitherto concealed evil in Arinaitwe erupted, shocking and galling his friends and mentors.

Not least lecturers at Uganda Christian University where he obtained a Social Work and Social Administration Bachelor’s degree in 2006.“He used to be a class captain and a quiet guy. I am embarrassed by what he did (in arresting Besigye),” said his former lecturer.

He sauntered at the Mulago roundabout in Kampala, pistol tucked to the waist line, after using it to knock down Besigye’s car windows, re-enacting alleged rogues committed by Idi Amin’s berated forces.

Without a gun, light weight Arinaitwe would unlikely stage an average fight, except blurt out words in a quarrel as he does while translating for a top city pastor. He reportedly participated in investigating an unresolved sodomy case.

Associates, appalled and galled by his yesterday’s conduct, or rather misconduct, say he is a man of devotion, who prays while speaking in tongues.

On the streets, in the church and at shops, he starts his conversation with a calm Mukama ye bazibwe (Praise God) Christian tone. His wedding photos on face book page, scrambled after his unprecedented assault on Besigye, show him smiling in the tight embrace with his wife.

It would be odd that he chose to introduce himself to Ugandan tax payers who buy his food and dress him by tormenting a man his senior in wealth, power and contribution to the country’s 1986 ‘liberation’.

In lawful times, Arinaitwe, a CID officer attached to the Kireka-headquartered Rapid Response Unit, would be operating under cover like all civilised detectives, identifying and preventing crime.

Arinaitwe: God’s faithful who nearly killed Dr Besigye

Written by Gaaki Kigambo
Friday, 29 April 2011 22:55

As the public continues to express outrage at how the plain-clothed man, who has since been identified as Gilbert Bwana Arinaitwe, almost single-handedly assaulted Dr Kizza Besigye in a manner only the extremely sadistic would apply to their worst enemies, many of his family members are beside themselves with fury, embarrassment but also surprise.

Someone relatively close to some of these family members has told The Observer that the Arinaitwe they saw on television fly-kick Besigye’s car window at Mulago roundabout, hammer it with the butt of his pistol and spray him incessantly as if, as one person commented on the popular social networking site Facebook, he were spraying cockroaches or some other irritating vermin, is not the Gilbert they know.

The Arinaitwe they know – and who is mostly known by his family name, Bwana – is a very calm, collected, soft-spoken and rational man. They couldn’t imagine that he is capable of such degree of anger and violence that shocked the public beyond belief.

A number of people The Observer spoke to, who know and have interacted with Arinaitwe, describe him in much the same way.

“I was mostly annoyed to see that he was doing all he was doing while laughing,” said someone who has interacted with him a number of times.

Nobody at this moment is able to explain how that transformation could have happened, but some within his family are beginning to think it could be a consequence of serious indoctrination he might have undergone when he joined the police.

The first born of his mother (his father, who died when Arinaitwe was still young, had another wife), Arinaitwe, who is about 31 years old, was born in Kampala and grew up around Kamwokya.

His ancestral home, however, is in Kabale, among the well-known Bwana family. His uncle, Maj Victor Bwana, was part of the 1981-86 guerrilla war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power. Maj Bwana, who died around 1988, was a close friend of Dr Besigye, whom the nephew nearly killed on Thursday.

Arinaitwe went to Buganda Road Primary School, after which he joined Bugema Adventist School and, later, Uganda Christian University, Mukono, where he graduated in 2006. After searching for a job in vain for two years, Arinaitwe joined the police.

“There was a sense that he joined the police because he couldn’t find a job,” an acquaintance of his told The Observer.

This, however, needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as it runs counter to the respect and connections his family is reputed to have within the government, in which some of his relatives are employed.

Nonetheless, this acquaintance further says that upon completion of training, he was first posted to police headquarters in Nsambya, where he did not stay long before he was attached to the security of Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre.

Arinaitwe is a member of this church, along with several other senior and middle level police officers like spokeswoman, Judith Nabakooba, and is said to have been part of the investigations into allegations of sodomy against Kayanja.

Arinaitwe became Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police in September 2007. His current rank is Assistant Superintendant of Police (Officer’s File No. A/1089) officially in the Criminal Investigations Directorate – Homicide, although he is currently with the Kireka-based Rapid Response Unit.

Kayihura's police

That in the short time (less than three years) he has been a police officer, he was found competent enough to lead the arrest of the country’s leading opposition politician is telling of the real nature of ideological orientation and transformation that the Inspector General of Police, Maj Gen Kale Kayihura, is overseeing in the Uganda Police Force.

In a February interview with The Observer, Kayihura said, among the things he was proud of as IGP is that: “The image of the police is changing. It is getting closer to the people.

It was a remote institution, station-based just out to arrest and brutalise and not be helpful to the people. That perception is starting to change. The officers are responding to this transformation. It was difficult [at the beginning].”

It is not known whether Arinaitwe was officially withdrawn from the pastor’s security (one member of the church told The Observer he is still a part of it) although he is currently known to be a detective attached to the Rapid Response Unit.

This force, which is under the police, has undergone several metamorphoses from the frightening ‘Operation Wembley’ squad that shot alleged robbers on spot, to the Violent Crime Crack Unit – which was Wembley in everything but name – to its current RRU, which has also been fingered for its terror, torture and wanton abuse of people’s rights.


God's faithful

An avowed evangelical Christian, Arinaitwe, whose name is a direct Runyankore translation of Emmanuel, which means God is with us, perceived his recruitment into the police as a calling from God to evangelise the force and win over souls to him.

Speaking assuredly at Mbarara Pentecostal Church sometime in 2009 with the kind of rhetoric only common with radical evangelicals, he is noted to have said that Uganda, under God’s direct watch and unction, was undergoing serious transformation.

He challenged his listeners to remain steadfast in their faith and hope for the country and ensure they are a part of it. Arinaitwe is part of a cabal of radical evangelicals who were openly recruited into the Uganda Revenue Authority to supposedly clean up the rot in this institution and clandestinely into the police on the recommendation of top placed people in government.

Arinaitwe’s evangelical community, however, are ashamed by his brutality and they are saying as much in comments posted on Facebook.

In one of many comments on his Facebook wall, Pastor Michael Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre wrote: “The guys dragging KB [Kizza Besigye], who claim to be born-again, are used to terrorise Ugandans.”
Arinaitwe is married to Ms Beatrice Nagawa, an advocate.

Fact file

Name: Arinaitwe Bwana Gilbert/ Arinaitwe Bwana Stephen became Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police in September 2007.

Rank: Assistant Superintendant of Police
Officers File No: A/1089

Department: Criminal Investigations Directorate – Homicide but currently with Rapid Response Unit

Computer No: 233553 (Old) C14409022966

Salary: Shs 473,789 per month
Account No: 8020033837
Marital Status: Married to Ms Beatrice Nagawa, a lawyer and advocate.

gaaki@observer.ug


Besigye tormentor’s wife collapses over husband actions

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1153312/-/c25cixz/-/index.html


By John Abimanyi

Posted Saturday, April 30 2011 at 00:00

The wife to Gilbert Arinaitwe, the security operative who used his gun’s butt to knock out the windscreen of Dr Kizza Besigye’s car window before unleashing pepper-spray and tear gas directly on the opposition leader’s face and body, collapsed yesterday evening as the news of her husband’s actions reached her, a close family source revealed to this newspaper.

Ms Beatrice Arinaitwe, who is said to be pregnant with Mr Arinaitwe’s first child, is currently on bed rest and under the constant supervision of her family doctor.
The news of her husband’s actions hit her very hard and made her yield to high blood pressure hence collapsing, the source says. By Friday afternoon, however, she was steadily recovering.

The security operative’s wife did not get to see her husband’s antics relayed on TV but had to suffer the confusing effects of a barrage of phone calls from friends and relatives who saw Gilbert step into action like a seasoned mortal combat star. “It is after so many people started telling her of what her husband had done that she collapsed,” the source says.

Ms Arinaitwe, a lawyer, fell in love with her husband in part due to his calmness. He was always wearing a smile and was always preaching the word of God. “And that (his actions yesterday) is what has shocked the wife so much,” the source says. She married Mr Arinaitwe early last year.

The source says relatives of the family, plus fellow church members at Miracle Centre Cathedral, Rubaga, are still overwhelmed with shock as they have thrust Beatrice into the limelight under such embarrassing circumstances.

Yesterday afternoon, photographs of the couple’s delightful wedding day, circulated on internet social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, and across email platforms. The photo’s mass circulation, including being published in Friday’s newspapers, have brought uncalled for bad publicity to the wife, the source further adds.

Gilbert Arinaitwe’ actions have sparked anger amongst supporters of Dr Besigye and NRM supporters alike and resulted in a countrywide protest on Friday in various parts of the country.