Comments for State of UPDF barracks at http://www.independent.co.ug , comment 1 to 28 out of 20 comments http://www.independent.co.ug Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:50:46 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-22336 As a muganda woman insulting my inlaws is not tolerable. I repeat - Evi Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:24:06 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-22335 People stop the ignorance. The days of name calling are over. In this era of multi-cultural, inter-tribal, inter- racial marriages some of us have inlaws from south,east,west and North. So please a muganda dont insult my inlaws who embrace my culture.. Name calling is for the ignorant and hate mongers. Get some brains - Evi Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:20:55 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-22334 ooooooooooooooh Cry for my beloved country in shambles. This is very disgusting . Our fellow Ugandans and alos men and women in Uniform who are supposed to Serve and protect the country an dits people live like pigs and they also allow it to happen. Please God let the voice less be heard. Shame on the whole rotten administartion. The good deeds between 1986 to 2009 are being outweighed by the most rotten deeds and corruption. Shame ,shame , shame ,shame ,shame UPM,NRM,NRA or WHATEVER. I dont care anymore - Evi Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:15:32 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21696 Rev. Kasibante, Since you have a conscience, if ever and whenever you will visit Nsambya Barracks, you will weep your heart out in pity; how people who provide security, maintain law an order can live in such an environment. Only people without conscience see nothing wrong with such inhuman state. In the sixties and seventies a private police, army and Prison warders earned Shs.300, but it was sufficient to cater for fees, three meals a day, development and saving. e.g. P1-P6 was Shs.10 and 15 for girls and boys respectively per term. Sen Sec School was Shs.60-100 (Boarding). Note: Unlike current Universal Poverty Education (UPE) the girl-child was catered for because paying fees was also a pride and made parents responsible. - Lakwena Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:53:09 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21693 Mafigiri christian, Soldiers are also human beings. They have a right to a decent livelihood. What standard of living do soldiers in other countries have? Museveni just abuses and uses the soldiers: He debases them with animal salary and a hovel-like accommodation akin to those of hyenas. Unlike their predecessors, the rank and file of the Police, Prison and UPDF officers will never educate their children to higher level unless they're thieves. Museveni just keeps them alive, with no hope of independence. After they are demobilized, his step brother Saleh continues to hold them on a lease like puppies, in the name of Reserve Force. Which gives them a false conscientiousness of being useful to the country. Never, they are just Museveni's lap dogs. Why did PGB Prt Mucunguzi explode in a pub? Frustration. He felt trapped. - Lakwena Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:14:53 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21673 Imagine all the division Commanders are from the same region.Thats why majority of us who felt we could not continue deserted and are now eating fairly big in Iraq.From there we shall be able to ............... - Ezerah Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:38:52 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21672 The army leadership comes from the same region.They're all p'ple wth the same thinking.Even if they decided that solidiers start staying in the bush no one would stop that .Gog bless Uganda where Nepotism is the order of the day! - Ezerah Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:33:39 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21569 Lakwena, I won't go to Nsambya Police Barracks to retrace my steps lest I suffer heart attack. And you are right about 'tribes'. No tribalism in the police - then. As a matter of fact, people used to joke about each other's 'tribe' without causing offence. They were more like clans. You knew that "Dokolo" was a place name in Lango, so you could NOT refer to people from the North/West Nile/North East as "Badokolo". Christian Mafigiri talks of eating eggs, rice, and chicken. I do not remember eggs and sausage. Lakwena can re-jog my memory. I remember, though, that wife of former Minister of Internal Affairs, Basil Bataringaya (RIP) almost caused a riot when she told police wives at Nsambya that they should give their child an egg at least once a week! - Rev Amos Kasibante Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:58:50 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21552 When Idi Amin Dada became president from 1971, he applied the barracks discipline through out the country, completely. Every Friday was a KEEP UGANDA CLEAN. From Monday to Thursday the Urban authorities: the Town Council, Municipal and City Council (KCC) do their normal cleaning completely. But on Fridays from 4-5:pm, every able bodied adult including civil servants; regardless of rank participated in cleaning the urban centers. The exercise was superintended by the respective Provincial Governors and also the military police. It was normal to see civil servants carrying slasher or brooms to places of work on Friday. That was Amin's style of instilling patriotism in Ugandans. And it worked. But Uganda is now a shauri yako country! - Lakwena Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:23:26 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21548 they used to eat eggs, sausages and rice???!?! no wonder they became soft ,chicky and cowardly.....a soldier is supposed 2 be used to hard life my friend if they wanted chips and chicken they should havopted for civilian life[>:( - mafigiri christian Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:05:53 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21547 Are there no more inspections done in the Barracks? - Watcher Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:41:54 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21544 Rev. Kasibante I now know why you are different Muganda. No tribes in the barracks. I am nostalgic. Nsambya was Nsambya: The driveways and roads throughout the barrack, right from the main- Kibuli Road, through the Station's parking lot up to the Dog Section was clean and black. But today you can't even find a piece of bitumen on any of these sections. The road that cut across the barrack, between Kibuli Road Ggaba Road is riddled with impassable gorges especially when it rains Gone are the good old days, gone with the wind and storm of greed and unconsciousness. Everything is up for sale: the barracks and even prisons are for up sale to the lowest bidder. That is what happens, when barbarians take over Rome. - Lakwena Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:14:51 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21510 Rev. Kasibante sounds like someone who is familiar with Barracks life. Corruption is the enemy of the armed forces. From early sixties to seventies, I grew up in the Police and Prison's barracks: Nsambya, Luzira, Mbarara, Namulonge and Adjumani respectively. I was also not stranger to the Military Barracks because I had relatives in the military. In those good old days, the barracks were places of discipline, discipline. Not what we see today. There was discipline for everybody and everything; and for whoever lives or visit the barrack. Because of regular inspections public hygiene is no exception. No office, housewives and children who live within the barracks can afford to be lazy as far as public hygiene was concerned. - Lakwena Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:52:43 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21465 Nuwabiine Jossy, a question that should be asked is whether military barracks - even if this were a matter of cleanliness and not construction - should be left to an individual Commanding Officer (pace Col Michael Mbuga, Brig Mugira, etc). If that were the case then these individual COs should have been transferred from one barracks to another to improve them. The problem, to me, seems much bigger. But the state of army (and police) housing - if the picture here is representative - is really cause for concern and presents an observer with a great moral dilemma when one considers that individuals in government, and the army, are constructing personal 4 or 5 star hotels and/or whole housing estates. - Rev Amos Kasibante Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:04:38 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21396 In spite of the several inaccuracies in this article, I think it is positive that issues pertaining to the military and national security should attract public concern. It is true the state of our barracks is appelling. If Idi Amin would resurrect today, he would suffer a sudden heart attack on seeinf the dilapidation of the infrastructure he left behind that even after thirty years has not had a serious facelift. Just like the image of a soldier has positively improved because of the humane and civilised handling of the institution under the NRM regime, alot more should be done to overhaul the physical infrastructure including offices, residential quarters, military health facilities(MRS), schools for soldiers' children, range grounds, recreation facilities, messing and institutes, etc. It is possible to rectify all of them and it doesn't have to take another thirty years. We all love Uganda and the UPDF should be built as a strong pillar of the state. - Magwara Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:24:53 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21387 I think the problem is that everythng is left to the commnder in Chief and CDF. I was happy with the late Col Livingston Katerega about how he had managed to keep Mubende Rehabiitation Centre to the standard. For it had gone to dogs when Col Mbuga Kojja was in charge. If every Commander can emulate Col Katerega and Brig. Mugira when he was in charge of Armoured Brigade Masaka, not 4getting Entebbe Air Defence Base, under Gen Jimmy Owoyosigyire, i can assure u Andrew Mwenda wud be at a loss of what to write. - Nuwabiine Jossy Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:05:56 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21380 Now you can criticise the army. It was not like in the early years of the NRM administration when Museveni said journalists should not criticise the NRA but leave things to him. It is or was ironical since the army has played a dominant role in our post-independence era and what direction Uganda takes will largely (may be 80%) be shaped by the army or at least who has control over the army. The creation of the PGB on the Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein model raises the problem of the army in Uganda to a different level. So do the wide social and economic differentials in the current army (or is it armies?). - Rev Amos Kasibante Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:26:08 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21311 Bythe way ,I had forgotten to tell you that while soldiers make their own huts and policemen share uniports , m7 and Bukenya are each to get office blocks soon built by Chinese ,of course m7's office tower wiil some tens of metres higher than that of Bukenya , 8) hhhmmmmmmmm and Afande Otafire lost his Naguru deal to the big man , Amama got his through with NSSF - Major Adam Kifaliso Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:36:41 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21251 What an irony? Given the incremental budget the MoF Defence gets every financial year; the rank and file UPDF officers should be living in paradise. Seeing is believing. The Ministry of the Defence is the most corrupt institution in Uganda. But President Museveni found a perfect scapegoat; the Police and the Judiciary to divert public attention away from the rot in the UPDF. He has turned the Police into his punching bag. Compared to UPDF, what percentage budget does the police get every year? Miserable. - Lakwena Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:13:46 +0100 http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/2085-state-of-updf-barracks#comment-21250 This article sums up how much Museveni does not care a straw about the welfare of UPDF personnel. Our poor soldiers don't need to be incited by what we say. They can speak for themselves. Museveni only uses them to bolster his life-presidency. Because of the authoritarian ethics in the military (obey orders), Museveni is hell bent on militarizing every Ugandans so that whoever disobeys his directive is automatically court martialed. Those who are being mchaka mchakad watch out! You're tying a rope around your necks. This article also makes it conclusive that President Museveni is a quack, indiscipline soldier and the worst leader Uganda has ever seen. Discipline includes care for others. He was Minister of Defense for donkey years but with nothing show. And all successive MoD Ministers have nothing to show. - Lakwena Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:57:03 +0100