President Yoweri Museveni has stated that, despite certain missteps, such as the attack on UPDF soldiers in Somalia, which resulted in 54 deaths, and the attack by ADF rebels on a school in Kasese, which resulted in 44 deaths, Uganda is mostly safe and secure.
“When we make a few mistakes, like what happened in Somalia and Kasese, those who don’t understand war start running around, panicking, but I can assure you that Uganda’s security is very secure.” “There were some mistakes in Somalia, and I was discussing them with commanders here,” Museveni stated.
“In Kasese, that part of the country has been peaceful for a long time, and those people there were quite relaxed, despite the fact that there are still some intelligence gaps, but all of these are easily solvable.” Anyone who bothers us will pay a high price.”
The president made the remarks while passing out 9690 Local Defence Unit personnel at the Kaweweta Recruit Training School in Nakaseke area on Thursday.
The 9690 people were chosen from three training schools: Kaweweta Recruit Training School in Labwordwong, Agago Training School, and Karamoja Training School.
Museveni stated that he was pleased that the majority of individuals recruited as LDUs were educated, with 5000 having finished senior six and higher, 700 having bachelor’s degrees, and five having master’s degrees.
He stated that well-educated individuals may become excellent troops and cadres.
“When you hear that some armies do well like the Israeli army, it is because they are educated people. In the 1960s, when they were fighting with the people they were fighting with, you would get educated people fighting with peasants from the other countries and they could not manage because of technology, and quick learning. The only problem is that sometimes the educated become proud and look down upon manual work but otherwise educated people can make good soldiers and very good cadres in different areas,” Museveni said.
“It is easy to learn with this level of education because modern warfare has a lot of science and educated people plan very easily.” The folks who were awarded awards here were all educated. One of the winners has a degree in civil engineering, and the other two are midwives, and you know how meticulous midwives are. You will not return if a midwife shoots you. As a result, I’m overjoyed; this is really excellent for the army and the country.”
The president, on the other hand, exhorted the new recruits to take excellent care of their health by avoiding reckless lifestyles, to remain disciplined, and to defend the army’s professionalism.
The recruitment of these new troops, according to the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), fits very well in the UPDF’s path to establish a modern, professional, effective, and efficient force capable of safeguarding Uganda.
“We thank the president for his usual guidance and for assembling a formidable force, and today we have taken all of his observations during the demonstrations, particularly on the fundamentals of training.” “We will continue to review our basic training curriculum in order to improve soldiers’ ability to identify and use cover, marksmanship, and team spirit so that they can improve continuously,” Gen Mbadi added.
“Despite our limited budget, we will continue to improve UPDF capabilities, capacity building, logistics support, welfare, and infrastructure development, while also addressing all other collective solutions to our force’s welfare issues such as education, medical, defence forces shop, WASACCO, and others.”
Brig Bonny Wolimbwa, the training school’s commander, stated that the recruits had been trained for 47 weeks and were equipped with all of the essential abilities to serve in the UPDF.
“To the recruits, today is your day. You have previously demonstrated that you have gained sufficient abilities to perform in your respective units through your demos. I want you to be excellent ambassadors when you leave this area, he continued.
Ministers, Members of Parliament, top UPDF leadership, and other dignitaries attended the ceremony.