President Yoweri Museveni has expressed his pride at belonging to the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF), Uganda’s national army.
Museveni made the remarks on Monday while officiating the retirement of 19 generals from the army at a function held at State House Entebbe.
“When it comes to NRA/UPDF I tell people to “put off their shoes”, to go slow because of the sacrifice of these people. ๐’๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง. ๐๐จ ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฒ,” Museveni said.
Below is his statement posted on his Facebook page
I hosted retiring UPDF Generals to dinner at State House Entebbe yesterday. This event was somewhat a recapitulation of the stories I captured in the Mustered Seed about the army. Where we started small, galvanized and determined, but later โhatchedโ into something big.
The NRA grew into something bigger because of its foundation on Unity and Sacrifice. We neither had food nor clothes, but bullets and ideology.
While in the bush, there was no pay and when we had just captured power, the pay was so low but these gallant men and women accepted to provide their services. These officers suppressed some of their interests to work for no or low pay to defend the country.
Immediately after the bush war, the country had no money and many people didnโt want to serve in the army, yet there was a need for the provision of security.
If your country is still poor or disorganized, who do you ask to provide security when everyone does not want? We were, however, able to provide security under personal discomfort, for businesses to grow and civilians to become rich.
๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฉ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ซ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐จ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ง๐ฌ.
I remember Gen. Joram (Mugume), when we wanted to attack Kabamba but had no food, he got his uncle to give us a cow to eat and we came back to life. Then the Lt Col Walter Ochora (RIP), who was one of the young soldiers sent to fight us when we were in the Bush, however, he later switched sides and joined us. Some of these individual stories should be recorded. These stories are good to inspire others.
Just like the story of the burning bush in the bible where God told Moses to take his shoes off because it was holy ground. When it comes to NRA/UPDF I tell people to “put off their shoes”, to go slow because of the sacrifice of these people. ๐’๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง. ๐๐จ ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฒ.
