Renegade UPDF Colonel Samson Mande has thrown a spanner in the works saying that FDC president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu commands respect across the political divide, the UPDF and several security agencies unlike his predecessor Kizza Besigye.
Mande described his former bush war colleague as straight forward, honest, clean and upright commander and leader.
Mande, an ex UPDF soldier who went to exile in Sweden after falling out with the ruling establishment has been known as a Besigye loyalist.
Reacting on social media platform Facebook, Mande blasted a section of FDC radicals that have consistently lashed at Gen Muntu as a weak leader who has failed to run the strongest opposition party.
“I am sure his support cuts across the nation, all political parties and has higher respect from the UPDF and other security forces,” Mande wrote.
He added that a group of FDC extremists and some from the NRM ostracize, frustrate, demonize, demoralize and sabotage Muntu; “at the same time demand results from him.”
It is no public secret that FDC founder Besigye leads a group of FDC radicals who subscribe to activism as a means of capturing power.
This group however undermines the mainstream party leadership under general Muntu.
The same faction avers that Muntu is a mole working to split FDC.
But many Ugandans particularly those in power fancy Muntu’s moderate character claiming that Besigye is so confrontational.
But Besigye ‘rubbishes’ these assertions saying the unfavorable political environment deserves to be aggressive mostly in a situation where the regime uses security apparatus to crash those critical of government.
Mande concluded that, “I know him as a straight forward, honest, clean and upright commander and leader. No human being is 100 percent perfect but let’s give him the support and chance like we gave to Besigye and help him deliver the nation.”
