Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza might have successfully staged managed own coup to avoid elections and also crush the opposition.
Just like the case for Daniel Moi of Kenya who in 1982 took advantage of an attempted Military Coup, went a head to silence opposion and the then powerful Mt Kenya Mafia.
President Moi was about to be overpowered by Mt Kenya mafia, found an excuse to deal with the late president Kenyatta’s Kitchen cabinet and the opposition ruthlessly. After masterminding a coup, he had reasons to detain and torture people in the name of protecting the government. Now, what happened in Burundi is not anything near a coup.
Nkurunzizza has given himself a lifetime opportunity of ruling Burundi for life.
The Burundi leader was in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday for an East Africa Community Heads of State Summit on the crisis in Burundi when renegade army generals and police allegedly staged a coup against him.
After the news of the coup, president Nkurunziza was offered political asylum in South Africa but declined instead explained that things would deteriorate in his country in his absence. He wanted to get back to calm his supporters and end the violence. His host president Kikwete was surprised by Nkurunziza’s confidence.
“He told his host that the onus was on Tanzania to ensure that he returned home safely. He dismissed the coup and said all was alright inside his government,†said one of our sources.
On Thursday, the Burundi leader remained holed up at an undisclosed place from where he was driven to Julius Nyerere International Airport at 3pm for the first leg of his journey when his forces had regained an upper hand in the fighting.
He boarded his plane that had been hired from South Africa and flew him to Kigoma town, on the Western part of the country bordering Burundi from where he was to cross over.
According sources, President Nkurunziza arrived in Kigoma after an hour. At 5.30pm, he was taken aboard a helicopter that was to fly him to his home turf region of Ngozi.
The helicopter under the command of senior intelligence officers was designated as civilian and covered a distance of about 450 kilometres from Kigoma to Ngozi. Here, Mr Nkurunziza was handed to an advance team of his security and intelligence officers who had been dispatched from Bujumbura.
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