As he searches for a berth in Uganda’s electoral politics, rabble-rousing Gen David Sejusa is still a man haunted by ghosts from his past, with most opposition leaders, at best, remaining ambivalent to his overtures.

While some major political parties opposed to the ruling National Resistance Movement appear to be warming to him, inwardly, they remain sceptical about the intentions of the former co-ordinator of intelligence services, who says his aim is to galvanise mass action towards a change of regime.

Over the past couple of weeks, Gen Sejusa has on different occasions held meetings with senior officials from the Democratic Party (DP), People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Justice Forum (JEEMA) and the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). However, none of them has offered concrete alliances with him, pointing to the difficulties he presents to the opposition.

According to opposition leaders, high on the list of red flags against Sejusa is his unresolved military status. The four-star general is still a serving soldier though he says he is keen on causing a change of regime in Uganda.

While the army has refused to retire him, it has not reined him in either over his potentially treasonable statements — an action it has previously been quick to take against others who have said less alarming things.

This has confused people in the four parties he has met with so far, under his Platform to Rescue Uganda, a pressure group he formed to promote his political views.

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the biggest opposition party in Uganda by parliamentary representation, expressed its mistrust of him, citing his current status in the army as the major reason it found it difficult to engage with him.

“We cannot say today that we oppose an army general being in Cabinet, which is a partisan position, and then establish partisan relations with another,” said John Kikonyogo, its spokesperson. 

While Sejusa has told parties that have hosted him that he has no intentions of cannibalising any one of them, or the other parties for that matter, his actions have been less clear.

The brash way in which he appears to court them, his request that they commit an official to him as their contact person, have appeared to some as if he were using them as a quick way to establish himself.

Scepticism

The PPP, for one, declined to commit that person when he visited them on Tuesday, April 28, and promised to get back to him after they had thought about it — a polite way of saying “no.”

“It was the first time we were hearing about the platform so we needed to understand it first,” said David Opii Alira, PPP secretary-general. “We welcomed him because it is our policy to be open to sharing ideas with anyone who wants to see change in our country’s leadership.”

This feeling of being used has not been helped by Sejusa’s unwillingness to share details of any game changers he may bring to oust President Museveni. Some party officials have interpreted this hesitancy as being pegged first to their acceptance of a partnership with him.

He, for instance, has challenged political parties to critically assess why they have not defeated Museveni in the past four elections; to seriously question what new tactics they are employing to ensure different results next year; and to build strong individual capacities as parties and organisations before they unite for action.

“Better organisation, better facilities, but above all, a harmonised approach in terms of message, strategy and tactics: These make it impossible for the oppressor to survive,” read an April 15 statement he issued following his visit with the DP.

“He speaks well, and certainly there are things he is saying better than we have ever been able to. But say that you identify your gap as communication, the way you package your messages, then what next?” asked a senior party official at JEEMA who asked that his identity remain undisclosed.

He added: “When we asked him about the practical steps, he said that is second-level discussion. All that we should focus on now should be establishing a common purpose. Does that tell you anything?”

Doubts about Sejusa are further amplified by what some party officials termed as “huge baggage,” he carries on account of his past record.

For instance, privately, FDC’s problem with him relates to his role in the public humiliation and attacks on Dr Kizza Besigye, its former president.

The two have reportedly met but in the absence of a public confession detailing how the attacks came about, his “sins” remain unatoned for to many party members.

Sejusa’s reluctance, therefore, to lay all his cards on the table appears only to reinforce the suspicion that he is still very much Museveni’s man on some mission only known to the two of them, an allegation he has lost no opportunity to deny.

READ: Museveni’s dilemma as former ally fires salvo

“When he came to us, it was clear he wanted to play a role in causing change but he has this troubling background, which he appears to be aware of because he tried as much as possible to explain himself,” said a PPP cadre who attended the meeting. 

“He gave many opportunities for people to ask whatever they wanted to. Even when they didn’t, you could see him presenting some issues in a way that enabled him to offer explanations on issues that perhaps were on people’s minds but that he felt they were uncomfortable about bringing out,” the cadre added.

Sejusa returned to Uganda last December from the UK where he had been living for one-and-a-half years. He fled to London in April 2013 after alleging a government plot to kill prominent officials opposed to Museveni installing his son, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as his successor. Brig Muhoozi currently commands the Special Forces, which guard his father as well as all critical installations in the country like the oil fields.

READ: Army man’s assassination claims put Museveni on the spot

The circumstances surrounding Sejusa’s dramatic return to the country where he was received on arrival by the head of external security, Brigadier Ronnie Balya, have also not been fully explained.

While Museveni said he sent Brig Balya to ensure Sejusa was not harassed by overenthusiastic security operatives, he did not explain why a man whom the state had earlier associated with subversive activities would be given such protection. Neither has Sejusa offered a convincing explanation.