Officer Cadet Ruhamya Kainerugaba, son of Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom.
Ruhamya completed the academy’s 44-week Officer Commissioning Course and was formally commissioned alongside fellow Ugandan cadet Andrew Bakira during the Sovereign’s Parade held on Friday at the academy’s historic campus in Surrey.
Gen Muhoozi attended the ceremony to witness his son’s graduation.
Before the parade, the CDF was received by Sandhurst Commandant Maj Gen Nick Cowley OBE, who presented him with a Sandhurst Alumni medal.
The recognition came years after Gen Muhoozi completed his own military training at the academy, graduating in 2000.
Reflecting on the coincidence, Gen Muhoozi had earlier shared photographs from his time at Sandhurst alongside recent images of Ruhamya undergoing training, describing it as “father and son going through the same hardships, separated by 27 years.”
Ruhamya and Bakira were among British and international cadets who marched past Old College, Sandhurst’s iconic main building, during the Sovereign’s Parade, which marks the completion of officer training and commissioning into military service.
The two Ugandan cadets were sponsored by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) and are expected to continue their military careers in Uganda following their commissioning.
Sandhurst’s commissioning course combines military training with leadership development, fieldcraft, operational planning, ethics, physical fitness and decision-making under pressure.
Addressing the newly commissioned officers, British Army Chief of the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker warned that the global security environment was changing rapidly and that military forces could no longer assume lasting dominance.
“We had every confidence that it was a world in which we dominated militarily,” Walker said, adding that “that world is fading fast.”
He warned that the possibility of major war was returning while nations could no longer rely on permanent military superiority.
Walker, however, told the young officers not to be discouraged, saying modern defence increasingly required a broader national effort. “There is an absolute clarity to your purpose, which is to be ready to fight and win your nation’s battles,” he said.
He also challenged the newly commissioned officers to become leaders worthy of the soldiers placed under their command. “Our nations will need their soldiers. Those soldiers will need to be led… They deserve the best leaders,” Walker said.
He urged the officers to make earning the trust of their soldiers their first responsibility. “That is the simplicity of the motto of this place: Serve to Lead. And we ask nothing more from you,” he said.
Walker concluded by expressing confidence in the new officers and their ability to take on the responsibilities of military leadership in an increasingly uncertain security environment.
For Gen Muhoozi, the graduation marked a return to an institution that shaped his own early military career, 26 years after he graduated from Sandhurst.