Retirement of Gen Kigongo, Maj Nadduli from army raises debate

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDPENDENT | On Thursday this week, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the commander in chief of all armed forces retired 14 Generals and other senior members of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).

At a function held at State House Entebbe, Museveni enumerated the role of each of the senior officers he was retiring during the 1981-86 guerrilla war that propelled him to power 36 years ago.

The list had many who had served in government, but were being identified as UPDF officers for the first time. For some of the retirees, not much has been known about their role in the UPDF until their retirement was announced.

Among the generals retired are Gen. Ivan, Koreta, Lt. Gen. Pecos Onesmus Kutesa, Lt. Gen. Jim Beesigye Owoyesigire, Maj.Gen. Robert Rusoke, Maj. Gen. Fred Mugisha, Maj. Gen. Christopher Murema Kazoora, Maj. Gen. Moses Wadimba Ssentongo, Maj. Gen. Innocent George Oula, Brig. Gen. Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo, Brig. Gen. Jacob Asiimwe, Brig. Gen. Shaban Moses Lukyamuzi, Brig. Gen. John Kasaija, Brig. Gen. Muhammed Abiriga and Brig. Gen. Frank Kanyarutokye.

The senior officers who were also retired include; Maj. Gertrude Nanyunja Njuba, Maj. Hajjat Jannat Mukwaya, Maj. Abdul Nadduli, Maj. Abby Hafez Mukwaya, Maj. Henry Jjuko Walugembe, Maj. Stephen Katenta Apuuli Kapimpina, Maj. John Kaddu, Maj. Sula Sserunjoji, Maj. Fred Ntege and Maj. Ronald Richard Magezi.

Many of them, their known public roles over the years, conflicts with the existing legislation in regards to serving in the armed forces.

Hajji Moses Kigongo is the current vice-chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement while Hajji Abdul Nadduli was for 15 years the chairman of Luwero district and also served for five years as the vice-chairman Buganda region of the NRM.

For Hajati Janat Balunzi Mukwaya, she not only served for a long time as a Minister in Museveni’s government but she was also the MP for Mukono South for 10 years.

Section 99 of the UPDF Act states that “A serving officer or militant who desires to seek political office shall first resign or retire from the defence forces…”

Even the Political Party and Other Organization’s Act Section 16 prohibits a member of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, the Uganda Police, the Uganda Prisons Services or a public officer or a traditional or cultural leader or a person employed in a company wholly owned by the government, to be a founder, promoter or another member of a political party or organization.

The section also bars such people from holding office in a political party or organization, speak in public or publish anything involving matters of a political party or organization controversy or engage in canvassing in support of a political party or organization or of a candidate standing for public election sponsored by a political party or organization.

Those who contravenes this section “commit an offence and are liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty-four currency points or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both,” the act reads.

Joel Ssenyonyi, the spokesperson of the opposition National Unity Platform, says that they have been vindicated in their criticism of the President’s alleged politicization of the army.

“Museveni decided to politicize the army and militarize the politics. The army now does political work in every sense. You find the army is the one beating up opposition supporters on one hand and then mobilizing for the NRM on the other. You have also seen the appointment of serving military officers as ministers,” Ssenyonyi said.

He was referring to the former Chief of Defense Forces, Aronda Nyakayirima, who was a minister for Internal Affairs and his subsequent replacements, Gen. Katumba Wamala who is the current Minister of Works and Transport together with Gen. David Muhoozi, who is serving as the minister of state for Internal Affairs.

“We actually intend to raise this matter on the floor of parliament because that’s only where we ask questions and get answers. We have a right to know who is part of our military because according to what we are hearing there are many others like Kigongo doing political work yet they are serving military officers which is against the law,” Ssenyonyi said.

Speaking to URN, Hajji Nadduli, who also once served as a minister under Museveni until 2019, said people must appreciate the history of the National Resistance Army, the precursor of the UPDF.   “How do I retire from the military when I’m the military itself? You want me to abandon my government or my country. The current government is for the NRM and the NRA is part of it, so who can chase me?” Nadduli asked.

When told about the law that restricts serving officers from engaging in partisan politics, Nadduli said this applies to only the newcomers in the forces. “How can you tell the founder to get out of his organization? It’s like telling Jesus’ disciples to first denounce being priests before they take up leadership. We entered this army randomly without following any procedures because we had a task to accomplish. So those rules we made after getting in power only affected the new entrants,” Nadduli said.

UPDF explains

For his part, Lt. Col Ronald Kakurungu, the Deputy spokesperson of the UPDF said they will take no lessons from anyone on how they do their work including retiring officers.

“These people started with us in the struggle but we could not only be in the bushes; we needed to have a political front to argument the work of the forces in the bushes. But this work they did, didn’t remove them from being enlisted in the armed forces,” Kakurungu said.

He added that UPDF has a process through, which people are retired. “We cannot retire people simply because the public is shouting, no, no. We have a process that we follow and there is no law that has been broken. By the way, when you say they have been in active service when was the last time you saw Hajji Kigongo in a uniform,” Kakurungu said.

On April 6, 2004, President Museveni was retired from the UPDF and promoted to a full general. However, on several occasions, he has appeared in the public in full military gear of a serving officer sending tongues wagging on whether he actually ever retired from the army.

Efforts to speak to the NRM Secretary-General, Richard Todwong or Emmanuel Dombo, the Director for Information and Publicity on why they allow serving officers to be part of their rank and file were futile as they didn’t pick our calls to their known cellphones.

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