Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) President Duma Boko said he did all he had to in order to protect President Ian Khama’s life by lecturing and giving him free advice relevant to situations at hand.
Speaking at a rally in Gaborone Central last Sunday, Boko declared that he does not hate Khama as some people are made to believe.
“I have to clear this perception that I hate Khama; I do not hate Khama, if there is someone I have shown my love unto it is President Khama. I am not referring to the kind of love between him and Olopeng. I have been advising him on different issues from way back and I have continued doing that,” he said.
Boko said he wrote letters and personally delivered them to Khama advising him that the people he is dealing with will put him in trouble if he is not careful.
“In one of the letters I have written to Khama, I indicated to him that if he did not play any part in Kalafatis’ murder, he must then allow those who did to be prosecuted before the courts of law. I told him about a law that says if people are killed in the country, either by soldiers or police officers, and the perpetrators are not prosecuted, it is the President of the nation at the time who will have to answer for the murders,” Boko said.
He said that if at all he hates Khama he wouldn’t have given him any advice on different issues that Khama seemed not to understand.
“If I did not love him I would not have highlighted these things to him. I explained to him how this could put his life in trouble. To me that’s much love for Khama. If at all I was wishing him bad luck I could have decided to keep quiet knowing that the time would come when he will have to answer to all these,” Boko continued.
He further said the reason why he personally delivered his letters to the President was because he knew he was talking to a leader whom he loved dearly.
“This is not the kind of love that he gets from those people who accompany him to Khawa; this is the kind of love that protects his own life from a concerned citizen of this very country. When he personally recruited me to his party, I told him that we were not enemies. I told him that there were many things in his kind of rule that I was against, but it does not necessarily mean that I cannot sit with him and discuss other issues,” he said.
For his part Parliamentary candidate for Gaborone Central Phenyo Butale said he was the relevant candidate for the area because he stands for the interest of the people.
“This is not about me, myself and I; it is about we. I will be representing the voice of the people of this very constituency. What I will be doing in parliament will be exactly what the constituency of Gaborone Central want me to do,” said Butale.
