Prime
Man spends 8 years looking for Museveni
Baziliyo Mugarura
What you need to know:
- “The President spoke to his aides while signalling at me. The soldiers took me to the President’s car and gave me Shs300,000 as transport to bring me to Kampala and meet the President at State House,” Mr Mugarura recalls.
Eight years ago, Mr Baziliyo Mugarura left his family in Rubare, Ntungamo District for Kampala to meet President Museveni, who had promised him assistance in 2011.
On July 2, 2011, Mr Mugarura had given a jerrycan of honey to President Museveni as a gift during the president’s visit to Ruhaama.
While handing over the gift, Mr Mugarura took the chance to tell the President about his personal problems.
“I always had thoughts of reaching the President to tell him my problems so that he can help me. One day I got to know that the President was coming to Ntungamo to a function of the First Lady when she was still Ruhaama MP,” Mr Mugarura narrated.
“I prepared a jerrycan of my best honey and reached out to the master of ceremonies to put me on the programme. Towards the end of the function, I was given the opportunity to hand over the gift to the President and I also told him my issues,” he said.
“The President spoke to his aides while signalling at me. The soldiers took me to the President’s car and gave me Shs300,000 as transport to bring me to Kampala and meet the President at State House,” Mr Mugarura recalls.
A month later, Mr Mugarura travelled to Kampala. By 10am the following day, Mr Mugarura was at State House Nakasero.
“I called the number that was given to me by the soldiers in Ruhaama and waited,” he said. A presidential guard approached him and asked who he was.
“I introduced myself and explained to him the purpose of my visit. He told me that as a soldier, he could not help me but told me to go to Okello House and meet madam Ms Lucy Nakyobe [State House comptroller],” Mr Mugarura says.
At Okello House, he met Ms Nakyobe and was asked to write a letter to the President explaining his issues.
However, Mr Mugarura did not write the letter. He decided to go back home in Rubaare to plan his next move, which included meeting Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, to take him to the President.
Daily Monitor has seen a letter that Mr Rukutana wrote when he was the State minister for Labour introducing Mr Mugarura to the President. However, this did not earn him access to the Head of State.
“So in 2012, I got to know that the President was at Mbarara High School and I decided that by all means I would meet him. When the President was done with his speech, I ran towards him shouting but I was intercepted by soldiers and later detained at Mbarara Police Station for seven days,” he narrated in an interview at Daily Monitor offices in Kampala.
Mr Mugarura came back to Kampala, leaving his family and three children behind in Rubaare.
“Life became tough for me. I had many debts, and my land was taken away. My only family which was my wife and children left me. She married another man. I decided to leave Ntungamo for Kampala to look for a job as I find ways of meeting the President,” he said.
After three years of working as a potter in Kampala, Mr Mugarura wrote the letter to the President, which Ms Nakyobye had asked him to write in 2011.
However, Mr Mugarura says he has not heard from State House since then.
Govt reponse
The senior presidential press secretary, Mr Don Wanyama, said Mr Mugarura’s claims are a hearsay since he did not have a letter to prove that he was promised help by the President.
“Whenever the President meets such people even when it’s informal, he always tells his secretary and they document the pledge. And that is the basis one can use to follow up,” he said.
