In an exciting tale of what could be the smartest and one of most daring tales you could have heard told, a lowly boda boda rider has entered in the records of Uganda as the first man to bundle all the three most probable Presidential materials and conning them of liquid cash.
Moses Ssimbwa could have until January 26 NRM day in Jinja, been unknown to many as he posed before multitudes to address President Museveni and the crowd there but he stood with an enviable record of bringing three of the country’s most popular men to their knees as he remotely dipped his fingers into their large pockets.
In 2022, Ssimbwa is said to have rang Rtd Col Dr Kizza Besigye and informed him of how he had been knocked by a police patrol vehicle which on the activities of Forum for Democratic Change during the 2021 elections.
Ssimbwa had been a passionate member of the Najjanankumbi outfit, especially when Besigye was its supreme leader.
Upon receiving the news, Besigye sent envoys to confirm Ssimbwa’s allegations. Indeed, the youthful opposition supporter was founded grounded at Jinja Hospital where he was receiving treatment with broken limbs and other wounds. In response, Besigye quickly ran to his X account to call out the government over what he said was excessive persecution of opposition supporters. Indeed, Besigye disbursed an unspecified amount of cash to help in the rehabilitation of his man.
Riding on the information tweeted by Besigye, National Unity Platform (NUP) top leaders, through Deputy Mouthpiece, Alex Mufumbiro reached out to the man and convinced him to lend his courage to the struggle by speaking out about what he had already narrated to them. This was very exciting for Ssimbwa, who by now, was overwhelmed by the result of the con he had initially believed would only help him put food on the table for a few days.
As one would expect, Ssimbwa who spoke calmly and sometimes assigned his more robust wife to speak on his wife submitted that he was ready to cooperate but only upon fulfilment of some conditions.
He demanded that the bosses at Kamwokya helps to settle his rent arrears which he claimed stood at a whooping 18 months at Ugx 200,000 each. He also wanted some medical support for his leg which he claimed was rotting for lack of good medical attention.
Ssimbwa also allegedly demanded that his wife is facilitated with starting capital of 5M to help sustain his family since the accident had rendered him unemployable.
At this meeting, Ssimbwa had done all he could to convince Mufumbiro that the police patrol vehicle had knocked him while pursuing Bobi Wine and not Besigye’s FDC as the former Museveni physician had first claimed in a tweet. He said that he was first warned by an unidentified police officer not to take part in Bobi Wine’s rallies but he insisted after failing to control his love for the musician cum politician.
Upon return to Kamwokya from Jinja, Bobi Wine and company were elated with the outcome and unanimously agreed to fulfil Ssimbwa’s conditions without any conditions.
As a token of appreciation, Ssimbwa offered to go all the way to Hague to testify against President Museveni in the ICC case at the Hague.
He was taken to Nairobi during the Human Rights Accountability conference, given cash as he had demanded and also taken to the hospital for more expert assistance.
*Museveni the next target*
When the money received from Kamwokya dried up and calls for more were no longer yielding, Ssimbwa hatched a more daring plan, this time targeting Museveni. He reached out to the President’s close Aide who hails from Busoga and told his story, this time twisting it to imply that although he had really been knocked by a vehicle, it was a sugar can carrying truck and not a police car as he had first claimed. He said he was coerced to accuse the government by the opposition, particularly NUP in exchange for some losses change. The said Museveni Aide who saw an opportunity to earn praise upon himself convinced Ssimbwa to meet the President and make this very damning confession. As usual, Ssimbwa asked for more money, this time demanding a lot more than both Besigye and Bobi Wine had paid him. On top, he also asked that his leg be rectified, which conditions were gladly agreed to.
On the 26th, of January this year, Ssimbwa finally made his speech before the President and the general public in which he apologised for soiling the good image of the government though through duress. Besides what he had been promised already, he demanded that he is granted protection from the state for the people who was committing to exposing could want to harm him. He also accused the opposition of being behind the abductions in the drones, promising to give more information in seclusion with the President.
One man refuses to fall prey
Just as Ssimbwa was smiling in victory as his plan started to pay off without any challenge, one man out of the blue rose the dust. This man was Dr Nico Schoonderwoerd, the man at the forefront of the petition against President Museveni at the ICC. Nico had been forwarded Ssimbwa as a possible witness in the human rights violation case at the Hague based judicial institution.
Smelling a rat, the Amsterdam based activist called Ssimbwa to interrogate him about his allegations. Ssimbwa, however, failed to put meat on his story of persecution by the police. Besides, hecouldnt verily state the month and date of the accident, raising more questions.
” When I asked him more questions he had no answers to, he hung up on me. When I called again, his wife picked and for her, she claimed that the accident happened in March, 2021.” Dr Nico explained in a video on his tiktok account.
Surprisingly, March was way after the elections and Bobi Wine was never in Jinja, let alone holding a procession there.
Upon these inconsistencies, a decision was made to scrap Ssimbwa’s name from the list of witnesses for the case at Hague.
As the different parties continue gnashing their teeth over the betrayal, Ssimbwa is a happy man satisfactorily enjoying the fruits of his hard con.
