The Government through Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs has confirmed that it will continue to support training sessions of Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) soldiers.
This was revealed by Defence and Veteran Affairs Minister Adolf Mwesige on Thursday during the passed out ceremony of 42 Senior Officers who successfully completed their one-year course at the Uganda Senior Command and Staff Course College (USCSC)- Kimaka.
“UPDF is a professional force and training must be one way of maintaining this status. This course is a clear reflection that East Africa Community integration is a success since it has attracted students from the entire East African Region and South Africa,” said Mwsige.
On behalf of President Museveni, the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, Mwesige applauded the UPDF as an institution for the tireless efforts to maintain peace in Uganda and the entire region.
“Such training courses have been very successful because of our partners like the United States, United Kingdom, China, India, Egypt and others who have supported us in the form of training and equipment,” he said.
“I know it was not easy through this one year at the course, thank you for your endurance and congratulations to you all.”
The Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen David Muhoozi also stated that trainings play a great role in improving human resource and is at the core of capacity building and professionalism in UPDF.
“UPDF has now improved training by standardising the way it teaches in conformity with other colleges in the region. We have strove to improve training by empowering the teaching staff with other foreign partners like India, Tanzania and Kenya,” he said.
The Commandant of the college Lt Gen Andrew Guti said that this was the 14th intake of year 2018/19.
“This course attracted students from all East African Community partner states as well as the Republic of South Africa. We do thank the UPDF leadership that enabled the smooth running of the course hence its success,” said Lt Gen Guti.
Meanwhile, Maj DS Opolot emerged as the best all-around student while Lt Col GM Gitao from Kenya Defence Forces was a best fraternal student.
Lt Col ET Nuwagaba was best in Commandant Service paper and Lt Col Tukamwakira best in Central lecture hall discussions.
