Fellow Ugandans,
Gen. Yoweri K. Museveni and Gen. Salim Saleh are retired. Gen. David Tinyefuza hails from Ssembabule District, Buganda region other than Ankole sub region. There was a time when the Army Commander was Al Haji Lt. Gen. Abubaker Jeje Odong and Inspector General of Police was Cossy Odomel and nobody raised a finger. Ankole in particular and Western Uganda in general is not one tribe or ethnicity. Ankole is a product of 1001 Agreement. Prior to that it was made up of kingdoms of Nkore (Kaarokarungi or present day Mbarara, Nyabushozi, including Kazo, and Kashaari. Other kingdoms were Igara, Shema, Buhweju and even Mporororo where President Museveni and Col.Kizza Besigye come from. In all these kingdoms, there were Bahima pastoralists and Bairu cultivators, and a few others. Banyaruguru just like Batagwenda in Tooro, were originally Baganda. Bukanga county is predominantly Baganda especially Bakooki. Isingiro and Kajara also have a reasonable number of Baganda. By 1991 census, Mbarara Distirct including Ibanda, Isingiro and Kiruhura, had 100,000 Baganda.
Then Kigezi is predominantly Bakiga, Bahororo, Bafumbira. Rwenzoori is of Batooro, Bakonjo, Bamba, Banyabindi, Basongora etc..Bunyoro; Banyoro, Bagungu, Bacope, Bahuma, Bakiga, Baganda etc….That is your Ankole or Western Uganda.
However in my view, offices like Chief of Defence Forces, Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Commander of Land Forces, Commander of Air Force, Chief of Marines, Inspector General of Police, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Commissioner General of Prisons, Deputy Commissioner General of prisons, have been politicized just like cabinet ministers and RDCs.
They should be regionally balanced. But it should be gradual. Obote l had Opolot as CDF, Amin as Army Chief of Staff, Oryema as IGP and Okurut as Prisons C.G. They were all coming from the North and North East.
Amin had Maj. Francis Nyangwezo, Brig. Malera, Mustafa Adrisi, Isac Lumago and Yusuf Gowon as Army Chiefs of Staff. Other than Nyangweso, the rest hailed from his home region of West Nile. He had Colt. Toko and Brig.Guweddeko as Air Force Chief. Toko was from West Nuile and Guweddeko from Buganda, he later killed him. The Inspector General of Police was Luke Ofingi and later Kassim Obura. Commissioner General of Prisons was Kiyonga, from my home Mawogola county, whom he later killed, and replaced him with the late Gyagenda, who was formerly Commissioner of Buganda Prisons.
During UNLF days of Lule , Binaisa and Muwanga, people raised why both the Army Commander and the Chief of Staff were from the North. They were told that those were the ones who pioneered the nati Amin struggle. When Oyite Ojok died in a rush in 1983, he was replaced by Smith Opon Acaka, who served Uganda Army until 1977. The Acholis were not happy. When Binaisa tried to get another Chief of Staff, he had brought in Sam Nnyumba. But that was short lived.
When Olara Otunu’s Junta came in, the CDF was Lt.Gen.Bazilio Olara Okello as the Commander in Chief was Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa. The Army Chief of Staff was Maj. Gen. Zeddy Maruru.
NRA had Ahmed Sseeguya and Magara in the bush, and Elly Tumwone, Salim Saleh, Mugisha muntu, Jeje Odong, James Kaziini and Aronda in peace times. The deputies included Fred Rwigyema, Brig.Joram Mugume and Lt. Gen.Ivan Koreta, a FRONASA veteran. Chiefs of Staff include Fredrick Oketcho, Sam Nannyumba, Fred Tolit, Cheif Ali, Nakabius Lakra, James Kaziini, among others.
Amin’s Commissioner General was Kigoonya from Kikoma, in Mawogola not Kiyonga. Kigoonya family had a Mailo land estate in Mawogola which is still in existance. He was suspected to have collaborated with guerillas based in Tanzania and was not given a fair trial, like other Amin’s victims.
Had UFM won the war, the CDF or Army Chief of Staff would have been Maj. Oboma, their original Chief of Staff, had he not been killed by his fellow Acholis in UNLA, or a Pakistani Sajjad Sorri, and his successors whom l don’t remember as by 1985 UFM was no more but in name. Then if it was FEDEMU, lT. Lt. Col. George Nkwanga and probably Brig. Kasirye Gwanga. If it was UNRF. It would have been Maj.Amin Onzi. If it was FUNA, major generals Isaac Lumago, Yusuf Gowon.
Fortunately all those forces were integrated into NRA now UPDF including former rebels, UPDM/UPDA, HSM, UPA, NALU, LRA, UNRF II, WNBF, ADF etc……
The President be given time to make a regional balance on what l regard as politicized but not technical positions.
In my view, technical offices are those like Joint Chief of Staff, Land Forces Chief of Staff, Chief of Air Staff etc…..The president can arrest the situation before it is politicized further.
Ahmed Katerega
UAH forumist/journalist
http://ugandansatheart.org/2009/08/25/updf-is-certainly-better-than-obote-and-amins-armies/
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