Igumba: UPDF General who studied in dress for full term

It takes courage to call a senior serving Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officer a “bastard” and get away with it.

But Makerere University Don, Prof Phillip Kasaijja Apuuli, walked scot-free when he referred to Maj Gen George Igumba as such and the Commandant of the Jinja-based Senior Command and Staff College, Kimaka, said “it fits his description in the real sense.”

“Gen Igumba is a product of an away match, and that is how he ended up being a bastard; abandoned at the age of six months and had to live with his paternal grandmother,” Prof Kasaijja said on April 19.

Prof Kasaijja was one of the guests reviewing Gen Igumba’s autobiography, “Born To Win: From Bastardhood To Generalship” which was launched by Vice President Jessica Alupo at the Civil Service College in Jinja City.

The 312-page book painstakingly chronicles Maj Gen Igumba’s journey from obscurity, navigating primary school in a girl’s dress for a full term, getting to know his biological mother at the age of 18 years, and owning his first pair of shoes in 1980, to a decorated UPDF Maj Gen.

On Page 17, Gen Igumba writes: “. . . Well, at least I found a way of starting to be enlightened and guess what? I started school in a girl’s dress."

“I want to say it more time and proudly so, that I, George William Kabaale Kasu Igumba-Ighala, would later become a humble General of the army, and not agriculture, forestry, or wildlife, did elementary school in a dress for the female gender and for a whole school term.”

He adds: “I attribute this to two reasons; one, it was easier and cheaper for my grandmother Miriel, to make out for me dresses from the pieces of clothing that remained from her gomesi.

“The second reason could be that my cousin, Joy Kagoda (Bwenene), who used to stay with my grandmother in earlier years, had left behind quite a number of her dresses . . .”

According to Prof Kasaijja, Gen Igumba reads candidly as seen from the bulk of the chapters.

“Chapters six and seven are lessons in life; it is a book about reconciliation, candidness, and hard work. Later on, he reconciles with his mother in sickness and death,” Prof Kasaijja added.

Ms Mary Mutesi, a lawyer and another reviewer, said the book gives a reader the feeling of a supporter of English Premiership club, Arsenal.

“At one time you are celebrating and the next time you are crying because of emotions and feel like closing the book. Every chapter comes with its own sweetness and emotions; it is a whole package out there,” Ms Mutesi said.

Rev Fr Richard Kayaga Gonza, who also reviewed the book, said: “When you read this book, you find a General who is God-fearing, an ardent reader of the Bible and lives by it."

When Gen Igumba took to the dais, he said sometimes he cries when he remembers how love was far from him.

“I was born to win, I was born a bastard in the real sense, and by God’s grace, I am a General of not a kingdom or clan, but of a national army,” he said to thunderous applause.

“I can claim I am an author of a book with good intentions to inspire each one of us,” he added, dispelling reports that he harboured political ambitions.

“My book has no single connotation of political intentions as some prophets of doom had insinuated. I would like to boldly tell them off that I am a very smart guy, not only upstairs but all round. Those who prejudged me are about to be disappointed,” he said.

Gen Igumba listed key moments in his life, some of whose dates he remembers with precision.

They are; Friday, May 15, 1959, when he was born; 1966 when he started elementary school in a dress of the opposite gender, when he got to know his biological mother at 18 years, and when he worked as a tout on his brother in-law’s pickup truck from November 1978 to January 1979.

Other moments, he says, are when he joined the army in 1980, first flew in a plane on March 18, 1982, when he was commissioned at Nigeria Defence Academy in December 1982, and when he reportedly “fell in love at first sight” on Monday, April 11, 1983.

Also fresh in his mind is when he fell seriously sick between February and April 1987, when he drove himself to the gallows in 1999, and December 1, 2007, when he wedded his wife after cohabiting for 24 years.

One of his low moments, however, was when he lost his niece, Susan Kawala, on Sunday May 10, 2009 “under suspicious circumstances from a supposedly state-of-the-art health facility”.

Gen Igumba said he has served in all governments of Uganda except Obote I, Idi Amin, Yusuf Lule, Godfrey Binaisa. “I have served under Presidents Obote II, Tito Okello Lutwa and Yoweri Museveni for 38 years.”

Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Alupo, the Vice President,  said President Museveni bought 500 copies of the book, with each costing Shs100,000 and directed that they are placed in all public libraries countrywide.

“The President is in support of the book which he said he read in three days,” Ms Alupo, who bought two copies at Shs20m, said.

Ms Alupo recalled Gen Igumba as a “disciplinarian” between April 1998 and May 1999 when she trained as a cadet at the School of Infantry, Jinja (intake five), saying he shaped them on a daily basis into the responsible citizens they are today.

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