Who is CID boss Tom Magambo?

On Tuesday, President Museveni appointed Tom Magambo Rwabudongo to head the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), surprising many in security circles.

Rwabudongo, who was promoted from the rank of Private to Major in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) yesterday, will replace Assistant Inspector General of Police Grace Akullo. Ms Akullo’s next deployment is uncertain.

He is the first non-police officer to take the job

We were unable to talk to Maj Magambo because he is out of the country but his aide said he was happy and excited about the appointment.

Maj Magambo was born in 1978 in Masindi District. He started his formal education in Masindi District.

After his secondary education, he joined Makerere University where he undertook a degree in Development Studies.

After graduating, he joined the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) at the lowest level and rose through the ranks to become Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO).

It took him nearly 20 years to reach that level.

He was then appointed the director of analysis in ISO.

Maj Magambo also worked as the head of regional affairs in ISO where he was involved in peace and security initiatives in the East African Community, African Union, and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad).

He was appointed head of counterintelligence and policy analysis in the ISO, and ensured that there were no spies or leakage of information within the security organisation.

Maj Magambo undertook several intelligence courses in Israel, United States of America, United Kingdom, and Canada.

In 2018, when the Eastern African Fusion and Liaison Unit was established in Entebbe, Wakiso District, Maj Magambo was appointed the coordinator.

Eastern Africa Fusion and Liaison Unit is a regional intelligence sharing mechanism of 10 countries which include Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tanzania.

Maj Magambo has a master’s degree in business administration from the Eastern and Southern African Management Institue (Esami), a master’s degree in peace and conflict from Makerere University and a post graduate diploma in peace and security in Africa from Uppsala University in Sweden.

He is finalising his PhD in mediation and conflict resolution.

In October last year, the director general of ISO, Col Charles Oluka, said Maj Magambo and his team had done a lot to safeguard the member countries from terrorism.

Col Oluka said Maj Magambo’s unit gathered intelligence information from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and would rely on it to handle the bomb threats in Uganda.

“There would be bombs all over but the public does not know. They only know one that has gone off. They don’t know about the 47 that we have stopped from going off,” he said.

He added that Maj Magambo’s team researched about the al-Shabaab, and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel operations, which helped Ugandan security agencies to deal with threats in the country.

The former Director of ISO, Col Bagyenda Kaka, thanked President Museveni for appointing Maj Magambo describing him as a good officer, who is incorruptible.

“He has a good background of intelligence. But as a person he can’t do much if he doesn’t have a good team,” Col Bagyenda said.

He added that he hopes that Maj Magambo would be allowed to make changes at the CID to remove a rotten team that has a poor mind set towards work.