President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has advised the retiring senior army officers to invest their retirement package wisely.
“This retirement does not regard it as becoming redundant now, no, not at all. This is like a mutation; from one form of service to another one and that is why we had to hold on to retirement until we had solved the problem of the package and I can assure you that what you are going with is considerable. That is why last year I permitted the retirement of generals and that is why for a long time we did not permit the retirement of casualties at Mubende. We said they should stay until we give them a good retirement package to make sure that their lives in the villages are good. Now this package that you have got is really good,” President Museveni said.
Gen. Museveni was officially retiring 11 army Generals at State House Entebbe on Thursday.
The generals join other 99 Senior army officers from the rank of Major to Colonel who retired on 25th August at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters in Mbuya, making a total of 110 senior officers who have retired this year.
The 11 generals include; former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gen. Kale Kayihura, Lt Gen. James Nakibus Lakara, Maj Gen. Samuel Wasswa Mutesasira, Maj Gen. Joseph Arocha, and Maj Gen. David Wakaalo.
Others are; Brig Gen. Austine Kasatwooki Kamanyire, Brig Gen. Stephen Oluka, Brig Gen. Frank Katende Kyambadde, Brig Gen. Emmanuel Kwihangana, Brig Gen. Wilson Muhabuzi and Brig Gen. Ham Atwooki Kaija.
The President advised the retirees not to misuse their retirement package by investing in ambitious projects like building schools and hotels.
“You should do something small which you are sure of. Like a man called Nyakana in the Fort Portal area. He has listened to our message and with 1.2 acres of land, he earns over Shs240m in a year from 8 cows of milk and poultry eggs so if you can get 5 acres, this is a lot of land that can help you to get a lot of income. If you invest in food production, you cannot go wrong. You see when we got Corona, things like tourism collapsed but eating never collapsed,” he emphasized.
“Apart from anchoring your future using the retirement package, you just sit down and become local counselors of the local people, they will come to you and advise them on what they can do for themselves to improve their household incomes. You are now going to become a new commissar and officer in a wider population. People will come to you, but they will come to you when you are stable.”
On the other hand, President Museveni lauded the retirees for belonging to a glorious army like UPDF and for making their contribution to the development of Uganda.
“The strong revolutionary force that we built did not only rescue Uganda but somehow contributed to some situations in the region of the Great Lakes. Therefore, I congratulate you for belonging to such a glorious force and making your contribution to it because it solved many problems for our people. When you look at our economy now, it’s a different story from what it was in 1986 and even different from what is happening in the world. Even today, even if you compare to the whole world, you can see the difference. When you look at inflation, it is 3.9 percent in Uganda but in many countries, the world inflation is very high. People don’t have food in many parts of the world, and this is due to the mistakes made by the leaders.”
The send-off ceremony was also attended by the Minister of State for Veteran Affairs, Hon. Huda Oleru Abason, and the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs Permanent Sectary, Ms. Rosettie Byengoma, among others.
