Inside Museveni’s UPDF reshuffle

And Brig. George Igumba, who has been the deputy Commandant of Senior Command and Staff College, became the Chief of Personnel and Administration of the UPDF, replacing Musanyusa.

Chris Bossa, who as Colonel was the Course Coordinator at Kimaka, was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and appointed the deputy Commandant of the college.

Brig. Charles Otema, who has been Chief of Logistics and Engineering, to rank of Maj. Gen and appointed General Officer Commanding the Reserves.

The former contingent commander of the UPDF in Somalia, Brig. Sam Okiding, was promoted to rank of Maj. Gen. and remains substantive Commander of Field Artillery Division that he commanded before going to Somalia.

Brig Gavas Mugyenyi was also promoted to Maj. Gen. and remains in command of Air Defence Division.

1985 recruits take charge

And in another round of reshuffle, Museveni also dropped Lt Col Paddy Ankunda and replaced him with Brig. Richard Karemire as the new UPDF Spokesperson. Previously, Karemire was the deputy chief at CMI.

He also replaced former UPDF Spokesperson, Felix Kulaigye with Brig. Henry Matsiko as the new political commissar. Kulaigye, who was not redeployed, appears to have got in trouble over last year’s gold scandal in which he was accused by a one Richard Kamugisha, a city businessman over kidnapping employees of his company and ransacking its premises after a bad gold transaction deal. Col Patrick Mwesigye, who has been at National Leadership Institute – Kyankwanzi became the head of the Patriotic Secretariat.

Maj. Gen Nakabus Lakara was made Head of Rapid response Centre (Command), a position previously occupied by the late Julius Oketta.

In other promotions, Brig. Proscovia Nalweyiso was also promoted to the rank of Major General.

Despite the flurry of appointments, even tested analysts like Simon Mulongo, a security expert and the former leader of Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs committee, which oversees the army, are cautioning against “reading too much into the reshuffle”.

In an interview with The Independent, Mulongo sought to focus on basics.

“My own impression is that President Museveni wanted to see improvement of the force’s efficiency and cohesiveness,” he said, “The previous leadership played their part and the president put in charge another crop of leaders for them to bring new energy and new thinking into the force.”

He said that the departure of Gen. Katumba puts in charge the officers that joined the army around 1985 towards the end of the war that brought President Museveni into power.

He said unlike the previous leaders, specifically the bush-war commanders, this crop of officers, who are not necessarily young—aged between 45-52 years—are likely to be more flexible, more pragmatic and in sync with modern realities of the day.

Mulongo said that new commanders also tend to come with new teams. For instance, the late Gen. Aronda, as CDF, came with the group of commanders who were largely shunted aside when Museveni removed Aronda and appointed Gen. Katumba Wamala.

Katumba’s team included his deputy Charles Angina, then JCOS, Wilson Mbadi, then Commander Land Forces (CLF), David Muhoozi, and Land Forces Chief of Staff, Leopold Kyanda, among others. Gen. Muhoozi has now come in with his own team.

Mulongo dismisses talk that the president’s son, Gen. Kainerugaba, has been made Presidential Advisor to get closer to succeeding his father. He says had he been given another rank and promoted, the same critics would have said that his father was now putting him in-charge of the army.

But Legislator, Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, who served on the same committee and covered the military as a reporter before he joined parliament, insists on using political lenses to interpret the reshuffle.

Semujju says that those who have been seeing Katumba as CDF have been missing the point. To make his point, he alluded to a meeting which Maj. John Kazoora writes about in his book, `Betrayed by My Leader’.

In brief, apparently as Museveni was meeting MPs from Ankole, he rhetorically asked them whether they thought Gen. Jeje Odongo, then the army commander, was the one in charge of the army.

He said that Gen. Odongo was just there to appease the Itesots, who like paraphernalia. When they see him in a jeep or chopper, they are very happy. Museveni said the same thing about the Basoga and Specioza Wandera Kazibwe, who was then his Vice President.

To this, apparently Maj. Kazoora asked him; “Is that how you want me to relate with your VP?” But President Museveni bragged that he was now teaching the legislators real politics.

“So, Katumba was not the CDF,” Semujju says, “those who know, know where the real CDF was.”

In the same breath, Semujju dismisses those who are reading much into Gen. Kainerugaba’s deployment. “Museveni knows that the military is his biggest constituency,” he said, “So, he doesn’t have to remove his son from the army. Muhoozi will remain in the army.”

Semujju also told The Independent that the only thing about this reshuffle is that it completes a purge of elements that Museveni did not regard as part of “Museveni’s army”. Semujju says Museveni used to see some soldiers as part of the army close to his brother and decorated bush-war hero, Gen. Saleh.  That, according to Semujju, is the reason Museveni set out to recruit young people mostly from western Uganda to put his own army in control.

“With these commanders,” Semujju said, “Museveni no longer considers the UPDF a threat.”

An in the almost inevitable ethnic interpretation of politics that is in vogue these days, Semujju says Museveni also is determined to ensure that when he leaves power, it is his ethnic group that is the dominant one.

“He has achieved that too,” says Semujju, “When you look at all the top commanders, they are all from western Uganda. The rest of us are just there.”

When The Independent attempted to gives him names of commanders that are from other regions who occupy top positions and have been promoted in this reshuffle, Semujju is dismissive.  “How many?” he asked.

It appears that with reshuffles in Museveni’s army, every move hits as many targets as there are opinions.

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editor@independent.co.ug