A UPDF soldiers’ honour guard. UPDF only recruits Ugandans without STDs, tattoos and scars
A section of legislators have protested the ban on recruiting Ugandans with tattoos, scars and curable Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) imposed by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) during the recruitment process lifted, describing the current practice as discriminatory.
The call was made by Everlyn Chemutai (Bukwo DWR) while appearing before Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee that is investigating complaints raised by MPs of the discrimination that shrouded the recent recruitment exercise across the company.
Chemutai accused the Army of failing to take into perspective the cultural differences across the country like in Bukwo district whose culture see locals remove their lower teeth and Amudat where the Karamojongs tattoo their faces as sign of beauty, but these body changes are used by the Army to reject these candidates for recruitment into the Force.
“And for us in our culture we remove the lower teeth and for us it isn’t a problem, it is beauty and we don’t expect to be victimized for doing that. We also have a culture where people have scars and it is just for decoration. Most of the people are from Amudat District with traditional tattoos. Most people from Amudat were not recruited, I think not even a single one. Most of them have tattoos and scars,” said Chemutai.
She also had grievances with the ban on people having scars, saying cattle keepers who are exposed to scratches shouldn’t be chased away from the recruitment centres for scars that come as result of these scratches noting, “And it also depends on the environment we live in, most of our people are cattle keepers and as they look after cattle, they get scratched by those trees and they end up getting scars,” said Chemutai.
The probe into the recent recruitment exercise followed complaints raised by Sarah Opendi (DWR Tororo) who accused the UPDF of denying the local district leaders from verifying candidates recruited from Tororo districts, after claims emerged that the local residents were replaced by people who weren’t residents in the district.
Although the State Minister for Defence, Markson Oboth made a statement dispelling allegations of discrimination during the recent recruitment exercise, Opendi said the response from other MPs indicated that the discrepancies weren’t limited to Tororo district alone but national in nature, thus the need for a thorough scrutiny into the matter so as to clean up the exercise.
Concerning the criteria of picking the suitable candidates to take for army training, Opendi said that there is need to change the whole process because the recruitment team was sticking on issues like Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs), dental issues among others.
Opendi said: “But also this issue of the medical, honestly I might have an STD now, but it is curable, so why do you disadvantage people based on those other issues. If we checked those officers who are recruiting are they themselves healthy? They might be having other diseases but they are in the UPDF? So why do you throw out other people just because they have STD as if that can’t be cured?”
She also tasked the Committee to summon the recruitment officers to come and explain the cocktail of conditions they impose on hopeful candidates, a demand Milton Muwama (Kigulu South) who also doubles as Chairperson of the Defence Committee agreed with and revealed plans by the Committee to visit the training camp in Kaweweta located in Nakaseke district.
