The Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has ordered the arrest of Brigadier General Cyrus Besigye Bekunda, the Joint Staff Chief of Engineering, along with other officers from the Engineers Brigade, over allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, Gen Kainerugaba revealed that the accused officers had misused funds, undermining a core principle of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF)—self-sufficiency and efficiency. He condemned their actions as a betrayal of the institution’s values and called for their punishment to serve as a deterrent to others.
Brig Gen Bekunda becomes the latest senior officer to be implicated in the CDF’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign within the military ranks.
The arrest comes months after Gen Kainerugaba issued a strong warning during the February 2024 closing ceremony of a logistics and inventory management retreat at the College of Logistics and Engineering (COLE) in Magamaga, Jinja. At the time, he stressed that corruption and resource mismanagement threaten the UPDF’s operational effectiveness and the welfare of its personnel.
This recent action further underscores the CDF’s commitment to rooting out graft and upholding integrity within the UPDF.