The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
✳ Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba Comd SFC/presidential adviser on security
✳ Maj Gen Paul Lokech -Deputy IGP
✳ Maj Gen James Birungyi to South Sudan for Special assignments.
✳ Maj Gen Sabiiti Muzei returns to UPDF General Hqtrs.
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President and Commander In Chief Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has made a reshuffle in the security forces.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is back as Special Forces Command (SFC) Commander while his former Deputy Gen Sabiiti Muzeyi is back to General HQ for redeployment. Lt Gen Kainerugaba replaces Maj Gen Birungi who has been SFC commander since June 2019 when he was appointed.
SFC is a unit of the UPDF responsible for the security of the President of Uganda, his immediate family, the constitutional monarchs and vital national installations, including the country’s oil fields.
Gen Maj Gen Paul Lokech has meanwhile been appointed Deputy IGP. Okoth Ochola is retained as IGP.
The US cites the November 2016 attack by Ugandan security forces on the palace of the Rwenzururu king Wesley Mumbere in Kasese in which over 100 civilians were allegedly massacred and the September 2017 attack on parliament by Special Forces during the debate over whether to remove presidential age limits from the constitution, which now allows President Museveni to rule indefinitely. They mention MP Betty Nambooze who suffered serious spinal injuries.
They also mention the July 2018 social media tax and say it was designed to discourage anti-government mobilisation on the part of youths and dissidents, and the arrest and torture in 2018 of Robert Kyagulanyi and 32 other opposition politicians following a by-election in Arua.
The seven commanders include Lt. Gen. Peter Elwelu, the Commander of Land Forces, Maj. Gen. James Birungi, the Commander of the Special Forces Command, Maj. Gen. Don William Nabasa, the former Commander of the Special Forces Command, Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho, the Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Steven Sabiiti Muzeyi, the Deputy Inspector of General of Police, Frank Mwesigwa, a Commissioner of Police, and Col. Chris Serunjogi Ddamulira, the Director of Crime Intelligence.
The seven face American sanctions following a request forwarded to the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, by the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel which cited their alleged involvement in human rights abuses past and present.
This would only bite if those people had businesses in the US or had families there. The US cannot purport to sanction Elwelu for storming the camp of Mumbere when the latter himself was condoning criminal activities with an armed militia of his tribesmen. Elwelu’s action pacified Bukonzo-Bwamba area as the militia was put out of action. Moreover, Mumbere himself is facing a criminal case in court. Meanwhile, Lt Gen Elwelu worked partly for the US interests in trying to bring sanity in Somalia in fighting Al Shabab. Pompeo is doing the dirty work of lame-duck Trump. In any case, should the US still want help from the Ugandan army in Somalia, they should not forget that Elwelu is the commander of the land forces in Uganda. Therefore, the Pompeo-Trump strategy at this eleventh hour may not work. After all, they’re already packing their bags as the Biden administration is taking over, something that has shocked them.
Aware of the intrigue condition of the country, what would have been better take than choosing own son to head the SCF
It’s clear that your eyes are closed to every evil mentioned in this story including the attack on Parliament in 2017,
Muhoozi was never out. Everything in this country is controlled by Museveni and his murderous family. And we thought that Obote was bad. I think all the people who supported and cheered these bandits in the bush war are now realizing their folly. There was no way Obote was going to rule for 30 years. He would have left by 1990.
shujaa our nekst