Former 2021 presidential candidate and National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (Need) president Joseph Kiiza Kabuleta has gone into hiding after operatives of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) failed to locate him at his pressure group’s office in Bugolobi, Kampala.
During the June 15 raid at the Need offices, CMI operatives and police officers failed to locate Kabuleta. They security personnel are said to have been tracking Kabuleta using his mobile phone which he reportedly used in the 2021 presidential election campaigns.
Dissatisfied by Kabuleta’s colleagues’ insistence that he was not in office at the time of the raid and that he had left the device behind, the security officers went away with the mobile phone.
Some of the pastor and journalist-turned-politician’s colleagues were detained for a short time. The Need office was also searched as security operatives sought to lay their hands on the politician from Bunyoro.
Tweeting from his hideout, Kabuleta described the security officers who raided his office as “thugs.”
“As thugs raided my office premises, traumatized my workers, arrested one media person and attempted to break into my private office, I was somewhere in a serene environment enjoying my cappuccino and reading a book,” noted Kabuleta. “Stop the loot. Protect your children from the Ministry of Death.”
It was not exactly clear why security operatives were hunting for Kabuleta. But he has in recent weeks held press conferences in which he criticized the government’s handling of the security situation in Karomoja, including claiming that there was an ongoing ‘silent genocide’ in the mineral-rich but impoverished sub-region of Uganda.
Kabuleta’s recent exposé was about the vaccination of children. The Watchman Ministries pastor warned the government against a plan to vaccinate teenagers and other students without first seeking parental consent.
He even offered a chance to relatives of a student who is said to be in critical condition after being forcefully vaccinated at his school. (Read Story Here).
But Dr Jane Ruth Aceng’s Ministry of Health came out and issued a statement indicating government’s position on the vaccination of children and teenagers. (Read Story Here).
Meanwhile, Uganda’s Health Ministry has spoken out on reports that government was planning another lockdown as Covid19 cases continue to rise. (Read Story Here).
