Museveni shakes up top army command
Kampala
President Museveni has re-deployed two bush war fighters - brigadiers Stephen Kashaka and Pecos Kutesa who have been on Katebe (without deployment) for almost a decade.
The new changes were announced on Monday by the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, to all army units, the military sources told Daily Monitor.
Brig. Kashaka has been sent to South Africa as military attaché, while Brig. Kutesa was promoted to Major General and redeployed as the boss of the newly created chieftaincy of doctrines in UPDF – a unit that is expected to formulate the army’s fighting and training ideology.
Staff College changes
In other changes, Maj. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the commandant of Kabamba Military Training School and his deputy, Col. Mathew Gureme have been transferred to Senior Staff and Command College Kimaka as commandant and directing staff respectively.
Col. Gureme who has been the Chief Instructor at Kabamba, where the vice president’s son, Bryan Bukenya was doing a cadet training before he died in a motor-accident in Mityana last year.
Gen. Gutti has been replaced by Brig. Clovis Kalyebala while Col. Dick Olum has succeeded Col. Gureme as the new Chief Instructor. Brig. Kalyebala was acting commandant at Kimaka.
The re-deployment of Brig. Kashaka and now Maj. Gen. Kutesa is being seen as a token of appreciation to the two senior bush war fighters as the army prepares to celebrate its 29-years anniversary on February 6.
Defence/military spokesman Lt. Col Felix Kulayigye confirmed the changes yesterday, saying Gen. Kutesa’s new role is to implement UPDF’s “training and fighting doctrines”.
“Every army has their doctrine. UPDF has been developing one on how we train and fight and Gen. Kutesa will see us through this process of implementation,” he said by telephone.
Army celebrations
After he was sacked as 4th division commander in the mid 1990s, Gen. Kutesa, went into writing political-philosophy and his memoirs “How I saw It” that tells his involvement in the five-year guerrilla warfare led by Museveni in Luwero Triangle.
Brig. Kashaka was the UPDF Chief of Personnel and Administration until 2001 when he was sacked along with 20 senior officers on accusations of creating ghost soldiers on the army payroll. His cases, before the Military Court Martial, have since been dropped and he will replace Col. John Kasaija at the South African embassy.
Col. Kasaija has been recalled to head Military Police formerly commanded by Lt. Col Michael Kabango. Col. Kabango is returning to Somalia for the African Union Peacekeeping mission.
Other changes have been made in the engineering brigade, which has become a critical unit for the UPDF because of the army construction projects.
Col. Solomon Amanya, who has been the Brigade Training and Operations Officer, will oversee the construction of houses and offices of Amisom staff in Mogadishu. The construction is to enable Amisom head offices shift from Nairobi to Mogadishu.
Lt. Col Sam Nkeera, who has been the field engineering officer, under the same brigade, has been transferred to the office of disaster preparedness under the Prime Minister.
Col. Nkeera’s deputy, Lt. Col Wilson Kabera has been transferred to Karama Training School in Mubende as the deputy commandant to Col. Geoffrey Kyazze.
[email protected]
