Former inspector general of police (IGP) Gen Kale Kayihura has threatened legal action against government-owned New Vision newspaper and its sister publication, Bukedde for alleged defamation.
Through his lawyers Kampala Associated Advocates, Kayihura wrote to the editor-in-chief of the New Vision Printing and Publishing Corporation on November 1, notifying the publication of his intention to take legal action in vengeance for what he called deliberate, sustained and malicious campaign to depict him as the murderer of former police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
Kayihura wants the New Vision to pay him Shs 300 million for every story published between June 9 and October 30, 2018 that insinuated that he is a suspect in the murder of Kaweesi or that he masterminded it. He says that a failure to secure the money and the apology within the next seven days will leave him with only one option, legal action.
According to Kampala Associated Advocates, The New Vision, well knowing that the evidence presented by the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) was fabricated and having published a story indicating that the entire evidence was fake, went ahead to write stories showing that there is evidence pining Kayihura to the murder.
On October 9, The New Vision published an extract of a report into the allegations of involvement of security personnel in the murder of the late AIGP Kaweesi. In the front page story, it was indicated that the entire evidence produced by ISO against Kayihura had been found to be fake and fabricated and that the people who put it together had been promised Shs 4 billion if they could frame him.
Kayihura and his lawyers have used this particular story to prove that the New Vision was well-aware of the evidence being false but went ahead to publish stories pinning Kayihura using the same evidence.
"You have accused our client or insinuated that he is guilty of a number of heinous crimes and in particular of the brutal and tragic murder of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi. You have published these insinuations with malice and in full knowledge that the allegations are false," reads the letter from the lawyers.
Kayihura was arrested on June 8, 2018 after a report by ISO in which Kayihura and other police officers were accused of having planned and facilitated the murder of Kaweesi.
Following his arrest and that of the other implicated officers like former Flying Squad Commander Herbert Muhangi, former director Crime Intelligence Col Ndahura Atwooki and head of Cyber Crime Richard Ndaboine, President Yoweri Museveni set up a committee headed by director Criminal Investigations Grace Akullo for review and verify the evidence.
The committee in August trashed all the evidence brought by ISO as having been fabricated and fake in a report to the president.
Following the report Kayihura was produced in the General Court Martial on charges of aiding and abetting kidnap and repatriation of Rwandan refugees as well as failing to protect war materials.