The Okwiri Rwabwoni incident at Entebbe airport in 2001 --- what happened?

The 2001 election campaign cannot be recalled without discussing the strange incident at Entebbe International Airport involving the Youth Member of Parliament for western Uganda, Major Peter Okwiri Rwabwoni.

Rwabwoni is a younger brother to Brigadier Noble Mayombo.

That day, Rwabwoni was beaten up and dumped onto the back of a pickup and driven to Kampala. He had been scheduled to fly to Ajumani with presidential candidate Colonel Kizza Besigye on a campaign tour.

New details reveal what really happened that morning.

On orders of President Yoweri Museveni, a bomb had been placed on the 20-seater Eagle Air plane that was to carry Besigye and Rwabwoni to Ajumani.

The plane was to be blown up over northern Uganda and the explosion blamed on rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Although Mayombo was the director of Military Intelligence, he is said to have been in the dark about the deadly plot.

But other accounts say Mayombo was part of the plot but came out against it at the last minute when he realized his brother Rwabwoni, a staunch Besigye aide, was going to be on the flight.

However while Rwabwoni was en route to Entebbe, Mayombo quickly dispatched his Military Intelligence agents to stop Besigye and Rwaboni from boarding the plane.

Other reports say Museveni insisted that the plan had to be carried out but the hard part was to prevent Rwabwoni from boarding the plane without alerting Besigye and therefore foiling it.

The soldiers tried to snatch Rwabwoni away from the Besigye entourage but he refused to leave Besigye's company leading to an embarrassing scene.

The then Major Moses Rwakitarate was at the airport and was part of the public scuffle that saw glasses, windows, and furniture shattered in full view of airport staff and one diplomat.

It is said that Colonel Kasirye-Gwanga was part of the group that beat up Rwabwoni at the airport.

After Rwabwoni was driven back to Kampala, he was harassed and forced to make a statement distancing himself from Besigye. He later said his statement had been made under duress.

He was taken to meet Museveni, who asked him "What do you want me to do for you?"

Rwabwoni requested medical attention and it seems exile, both of which the state arranged for him.

It is strange that all through the 2006 election campaign, Rwabwoni has not come out publicly to speak.

In 2005 at the time when former President Milton Obote died, Rwabwoni had told the media that he was going to Uganda to bury his political mentor Obote, but he never went. He remains in exile in the United Kingdom.