OPINION: DR. LAWRENCE MUGANGA’S CASE HAS EXPOSED UGANDA’S INTELLIGENCE GAPS

By Ambrose Mwesigye

www.mknewslink.com

In Kampala—–

I have spent some time following comments by various people on the matter of the recent arrest of the Vice Chancellor Victoria University Dr.Lawrence Muganga by security agencies and my mind opines that it was an unfortunate shamefully botched mission. Such an incident if not well managed could deepen the already staggering relations between Uganda and Rwanda, the fact that Dr Muganga is Rwandese.

The other implication is that should it turn out that the suspect was actually innocent, it would require Government to compensate the management of the University for Possible Image Damage caused by the incident and manner in which the arrest was conducted, yet there could have been better ways to carry out the same.

If the operation was a battle field action one imagines how catastrophic it would have been on the side of our operatives.

Legendary military philosopher Sun Tzu while talking about the Use of Spies asserts that “a major military operation is a severe drain on the nation, and may be kept up for years in the struggle for one day’s victory. So to fail to know the conditions of opponents because of reluctance to give rewards for intelligence is extremely inhumane, uncharacteristic of a true military leader, uncharacteristic of an assistant of the government, uncharacteristic of a victorious chief. So what enables an intelligent government and a wise military leadership to overcome others and achieve extraordinary accomplishments is foreknowledge”.

He continues to say, “foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy”.

Going by Sun Tzu’s point of view, the case of Dr Lawrence Muganga exposes Uganda’s intelligence gaps and leaves a number of questions as to whether intelligence agencies are well in control and coordination of their operatives, what kinds of spies are they trained to be or whether they are not sometimes turned to be ‘dead spies’ and end up actually transmitting false intelligence to their bosses leading to botched operations.

Otherwise under normal circumstances and professional intelligence workmanship there is no way a suspect of espionage, more so a top academic would be arrested like a suicide bomber, only to be released shortly on bond like an ordinary pickpocket from Kiseka market.

A critical analysis of the whole drama points to suspicious motives ranging from business rivalry to a possible insider job within the state apparatus to cause a scenario that may lead to creation or sustenance of budgets.

With the modern technical intelligence mechanism, and well established organisational capability of our intelligence systems I imagine no one would even be able to trace the route of the operatives right from entry into the scene of arrest premises to the exit and therefore the panicky statements we saw being whirled all-over by the Army Spokesperson Brig. Byekwaso would not be necessary. This would have been a typical intelligence operation- secret and thorough!
Conclusively, Government of Uganda ought to come clear and put the record right especially in order not to have a credible education institution in disrepute just because of organizational weaknesses of our systems.

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