Muhoozi eats big in PGB shake-up

An expanded and more robust elite military unit to be led by first son, Lt. Col Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been created, according to an army radio message released on Friday.

In the new changes, the former Presidential Guard Brigade unit will now fall under the previously exclusive Special Forces which initially was a much smaller though fully-fledged force with commando, paratrooper, air, infantry and artillery capabilities.

According to military sources, who cannot be named because of the delicate nature of the subject, the changes were announced by the President who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

Lt. Col. Kainerugaba, who has been commanding Special Forces based in centrally located Nakasongola District, will additionally be charged with providing security to his father during the 2011 election campaign, according to sources.

The defence/army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye confirmed the restructuring saying the changes were meant to strengthen the capabilities of Special Forces.

“These are normal changes to enhance capabilities of Special Forces and expand its responsibilities,” he said on Saturday.
The Special Forces also have the extra duties of protecting the country’s strategic assets including the newly discovered oil wells in the western region.

Until Friday’s announcement, the Forces also had a cross-unit relationship with the commando core of the Presidential Guard Brigade, based at Barlege, northern Uganda; Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force which operates from the central region; staff from Internal Security and External Security Organisations and a crack unit referred to in security circles as ‘Warriors’ under the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

In the new structure, Lt. Col. Kainerugaba will still be deputised by his long-serving 2-i-C, Maj. Johnson Namanya, the current commanding officer of the PGB.

Maj. Namanya, a trained journalist took over from Maj. Sabiti Magyenyi who is currently doing a military course in China.
Military sources said that Lt. Col. Kainerugaba will hand-over the command to Maj. Sabiti who is scheduled to come back from China this year.

However, critics have interpreted the military career of Lt. Col. Kainerugaba as having implications for the country’s political future.

The shadow minister of Defence and Internal Affairs, Hussein Kyanjo said, “This is the scheme we have been talking about. The President’s decision to appoint him is not a surprise to us. But a shame to the President,” he said yesterday.

Army responds
But Col. Kulayigye dismissed these claims saying the President’s son has always been the commander of Special Forces and “therefore there is nothing new”.

Different military sources nevertheless say that a plan, said to be in advanced stages of implementation, to gradually bring the Amoured Brigade in Masaka commanded by Col. David Muhoozi and Motorised Infantry into Special Forces could be underway. When well-drilled PGB, Armoured Brigade and Motorised Infantry finally come together they will make the single most deadly outfit of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces with immense fire-power capable of putting up the fiercest and stiffest of fights. Col. Kulayigye, however, said he was not aware of the reported plans to integrate the units.

Muhoozi’s career
Lt. Col. Kainerugaba joined the UPDF in 2001 after doing a one year course at Sandhurst, a prestigious British military academy.
After the course, he was passed-out at the rank of Lieutenant and deployed in PGB before he was controversially promoted to the rank of Major by Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi during the swearing-in ceremony of President Museveni at Kololo Airstrip in 2001.

While in PGB, he commanded the motorised unit of the presidential guards until 2008 when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed the commander of Special Forces.

In 2008, he was among 800 officers who graduated at the completion of General Staff Officer Intermediate Level Education programme at Fort Leavenworth, US Army Command and General Staff College in Kansas.

His latest active duty field assignment was in December 2008 when he formed part of the leadership of the Ugandan contingent of the taskforce that was mobilised to launch a pre-emptive strike on the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army camps in Garamba, DR Congo.