Last Monday, president Museveni, the Commander in Chief of the armed forces made several changes in the UPDF top leadership positions including that of the Chief of Defence Forces but critics point to what they say are dodgy arrangements regarding how the the army chief’s position has been awarded based on pesky politics. Experts say that this has undermined the military’s professionalism, resulting in bloated units and a lack of respect for the chain-of-command.
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Gen Elly Tumwine
On the morning of February 6, 1981, when a youthful Gen. Elly Tumwine fired a shot – the first one in the National Resistance Army (NRA) war. This shot marked the beginning of the 1981-86 war that brought the NRM regime to power.
During the early years of the war, he was in charge of a unit that controlled the Kampala-Hoima road, especially in Kateera. In the process, he lost an eye during a battle in the rocky hills of Bukomero, not far away from Katera.
When the NRA came to power in 1986, he was named the Army Commander, then defence state minister, Director General of the External Security Organisation (ESO), a presidential advisor and later, chairman of the General Court Martial.
Tumwine attended Mbarara High School, St. Henry’s College, Kitovu and Makerere University, where he completed a degree in Fine Art. With a Diploma in Education a well, he started teaching Fine Art. However, he abandoned the chalk to join the army with FRONASA.
He trained as a cadet in Monduli, Tanzania. The born-again soldier also does singing and fashion design.
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Gen Salim Saleh (rtd)
Born in 1960, President Museveni’s brother, Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, has never been known for talking, like Mr Museveni, about the National Resistance Army (NRA) Bush War. Gen Akandwanaho, commonly called Salim Saleh. Saleh joined his brother’s National Resistance Army (NRA) and the guerilla war known as the “Busy War” that would last until 1986. In January 1986, Salim Saleh commanded NRA’s assault on Kampala which eventually led to the demise of Gen. Tito Okello regime, with Museveni becoming President.
In 1989, following accusations of corruption, he was sacked from the army by his brother. He later became the senior presidential advisor on defence and security (1996 – 1998).
Currently, Saleh is the Commander of Operation Wealth Creation and a Presidential Advisor on military matters.
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Gen Mugisha Muntu (rtd)
Gen Gregory Mugisha Muntuyera commonly referred to as Mugisha Muntu is the current President of Uganda’s biggest opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
He served as the army boss from 1989 to 1998 and is the youngest ever army commander having taken over the command at just 31 years. Gen. Muntu served as Army Commander for 8 years. Before him, Gen. Tumwiine served for about 3 years, and Gen Akandwanaho for about 1 year. After him, Gen. Odongo served in that post for about 4 years, JB Kazini for just less than two years.
Muntu has often tried to draw parallels between army officers and the NRM regime, a departure from his close ally Col. Kizza Besigye (rtd) who has often been very critical of the army.
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Gen Jeje Odongo
Gen Jeje is the current Internal Affairs minister. In 1994, Jeje Odongo was one of the ten army officers who represented the Ugandan military in the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Ugandan Constitution. In 1996, he was selected to replace Colonel Sserwanga Lwanga as the Political Commissar in the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF). Also in 1996, he contested the parliamentary seat for Amuria District in the Ugandan Parliament. He won and was appointed as Minister of Defence soon after he entered parliament.
In 1998, he resigned his parliamentary seat and his cabinet position and was appointed Commander of the Army, taking over from Major General Mugisha Muntu. He served as army commander until 2001.
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Gen James Kazini
Kazini was born in 1957 in Bushenyi, now Sheema District before the family relocated to Kasese District.
He had his primary education in Kashari before he proceeded to Ntare School in Mbarara town where he studied with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
In the 1981, he joined Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) rebellion in West Nile under Gen Moses Ali, currently Second Deputy Prime Minister in the NRM government.
In 1983, he joined National Resistance Army/Movement under Yoweri Museveni in the Luwero Triangle. He was promoted and commissioned to captain in 1988, two years after the NRA captured power.
In 1989, he was promoted to major and appointed commandant of military police. 1991, promoted to lieutenant colonel and posted to the Mechanised Regiment in Masaka. In 1995, posted to West Nile to fight West Nile Bank Front of Juma Oris. 1996, promoted to colonel and appointed 4th Division Deputy Commander in Gulu and in 1998, posted to Kasese to fight the Allied Democratic Forces in the Ruwenzori region.
In 1999, he was appointed Chief of Staff and promoted to brigadier. In 2000, Kazini was named commander of Operation Safe Haven to eliminate the ADF rebels from their bases in DR Congo 2001, was made Army Commander, a title now renamed Chief of Defence Forces.
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Gen Aronda Nyakairima
Born in 1959, the late Gen Aronda Nyakairima was the longest serving officer in the position of CDF. Having taken over from Gen Kazini, Gen Aronda inherited an army whose reputation had been damaged by the corruption scandals.
n the bush, Nyakairima, who was in his 20s, had several responsibilities, most of them risky. For example, at one time he was involved in urban subversion under a squad famously known as the Black Bomber. Another time, he was under the command of Maj. Gen. Matayo Kyaligonza, whose squad used to operate behind enemy lines. Nyakairima and the likes of Brig. Elly Kayanja used to attack UNLA units within and on the outskirts of the city with devastating effect. After the war, he attended a Basic Officers Course in 1989.
Gen Aronda who died in September 2015 aboard a plane is highly credited for restoring sanity and instilling discipline in the armed forces. At the time of his death, Gen Aronda was the internal affairs minister having served as CDF from 2003 to 2013.
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Gen Edward Katumba Wamala
Largely perceived as a calm and moderate officer, Gen Wamala has been at the helm of the UPDF as CDF since 2013 until last Monday night.
He served as commander of land forces in the UPDF from 2005 to 2013. He also served as the Inspector General of Police of the Uganda Police Force. He has also been a member of parliament representing the army. Gen Katumba Wamala becomes the second serving UPDF officer to be named to cabinet, following his predeccessor Gen Robert Aronda Nyakairima (RIP), whose appointment as Minister for Internal Affairs in 2013 raised a constitutional brouhaha, with arguments that serving UPDF officers are by law barred from being ‘partisan’.
Gen Katumba in 1956 in Bweeza, Kalangala District, Ssese Islands.
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Gen David Muhoozi
The current CDF, Gen Muhoozi was born in Mbarara in 1965. Gen Muhoozi is lawyer by profession and has attended several military cources in and outside the country. At the age of 52, he has under his belt a Bachelor degree of Laws (LLB), from Makerere University, a Diploma in Legal Practice, from the LDC and also a Master of Arts in International Affairs.
Having joined the National Resistance Army toward the end of the protracted armed struggle in 1985, Muhoozi has gone to numerous military training schools including the Uganda Military Academy, back when it was still located in Jinja, for his Officer Cadet course. Although in the past, like most senior army officials, he was not so much in the public eye for the most of his career, Gen Muhoozi made a number of headlines following the outbreak of a civil war in neighboring South Sudan in December 2013. He is reported to have once defended the deaths of South Sudan civilians and blamed the conflict war on President Salva Kiir.
Now his appointment and that of others recently promoted and appointed has been seen by observers as a transition from the bush war commanders to the new breed of UPDF soldiers.
