Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has revealed that former National Resistance Army (NRA) Commander Lt Col Ahmed Kashilling’s final years on earth were painful, especially following the fallout between him (Kashilling) and his former boss Gen Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni.
On Thursday, November 03, 2022, security minister Maj Gen (Rtd) Jim Muhwezi announced the death of Lt Col Kashilling. (See details Here).
Now, Besigye, who was one of those who fought along Kashilling in the NRA bush war, has said that he (Kashilling) was supposed to be a general of the national army but he was never elevated to that rank. “Lt Col A Kashilling, the Gen that never became, has departed,” wrote Dr Besigye, who retired at the rank of colonel.
After the bush war, official ranks were commissioned and Kashilling was handed the rank of lieutenant colonel. By the time of his death he was at this same rank. Yet this is the man famed for commanding the 5th battalion, being instrumental in the capture of Katonga Bridge, and for blocking Entebbe Road during the capture of Kampala.
Once the war ended in January 1986, Museveni took over power, promising a fundamental change and not a mere change of guards. Then, he diagnosed the problem of Africa as leader who overstay in power but he has ruled the impoverished East African nation for nearly four decades.
Yet in a good number of years in those four decades, Lt Col Kashilling has lived at loggerheads with Gen Museveni. He was arrested, detained and tried for treason. Before his death, Kashilling met Dr Besigye, another bush war comrade of his dissatisfied with the direction that Gen Museveni has taken during a significant chunk of those four decades of Museveni’s reign over Uganda.
According to Besigye, Kashilling felt deserted by the people he fought with in NRA bush war and lived a painful life at the tail-end of his tenure on earth. The opposition leader claimed that Lt Col Kashilling had come on a commercial motorcycle or boda boda and needed a quick Shs50,000 to buy medicine.
“His [Kashilling’s] last years have been very painful- deserted by his comrades and his family! He told me painful stories fairly recently. He came on a Bodaboda to Nsambya, where I was. Most urgently, he needed 50K for medicine! Sad,” wrote Besigye.
Lt Col Kashilling’s death comes a few months after another bush war fighter Gen Elly Tumwine passed on. Before he died, Gen Elly Tumwine had sent a clear message and warning to President Museveni as well as veterans of the NRA bush war struggle. (Read Stories Here and There).
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