Somali Magazine -Elly Tumwiine, Uganda’s former Security Minister, died in neighbouring Kenya at the age of 68 after a protracted illness.
He was taken to a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, two weeks ago.
Gen Tumwiine was a founding member of the National Resistance Army (NRA), which fought a five-year struggle to install President Yoweri Museveni.
Gen Tumwiine is thought to have fired the opening shot as the then-rebel organisation raided a military barracks and begun its revolt in central Uganda.
From 1984 until 1987, he was the rebel army’s leader, and he held that role until the rebels took over government.
Gen Tumwiine served in many political roles during the last two decades, including security minister, deputy defence minister, and long-term member of parliament representing the army.
Following the November 2020 election campaign protests in which security forces killed at least 50 demonstrators, he assured the public as security minister that “the police have the authority to shoot and kill you if you reach a certain degree of violence.”
He left the ministry in 2020 and resigned from the army in May of this year.
Cabinet ministers have expressed their sorrow via Twitter: