The search for a seasoned UPDF officer to replace Lt Gen Paul Lokech (RIP) is on, and veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda’s brother Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga is reportedly on the list of those under consideration but former senior presidential press secretary Joseph Tamale Mirundi has a serious warning.
Last month’s demise of deputy police chief Lt Gen Lokech left the Uganda Police Force (UPF) in a tough situation.
Lokech was barely a year in office after replacing Maj Gen Sabiti Muzeeyi when he succumbed to a blood clot.
His boss IGP Martins Okoth Ochola is sick and neither attended his fallen deputy’s requiem mass in Kitikifumba, Kira Division nor his funeral in Pader District.
Ochola has also not been seen in public for about three months.
Museveni now needs another battle-hardened general to take charge of the police just like Lokech had for the past eight months.
Maj Gen Muhanga is said to be favorite to replace Lt Gen Lokech as deputy IGP.
It should be remembered that Muhanga was one of the generals tasked with securing the capital Kampala from being burnt down by opposition supporters (as security intelligence had claimed).
Muhanga also closely worked with Lokech in Somalia.
A ruthless deputy to a fierce commandant of the Ugandan Amisom contingent in Somalia, Muhanga could soon be named Ochola’s deputy.
But according to Mirundi, Muhanga’s tenure as deputy IGP could see a lot of blood flowing on the streets.
“I want to warn President Museveni if he wants to avoid bloodshed in Kampala let him not appoint Maj Gen Muhanga because he is a trouble maker. This is a ruthless general who will not negotiate but will kill people. Who knows what he did in the last elections?” Mirundi told TMO on September 03.
“Police need a credible person who will link it again to the local community. Since soldiers are not trained like Police, they make it detached from the community.”
