This Tuesday the 7th, December 2021, the Nile wires brings you, the life, career, and history of major General Kayanja Muhanga, the man at the command of the UPDF troops in the DRC.
Mary Mutesi, lawyer and political analyst has taken interest in digging up the life and military journey of a man now traversing the complex jungles of the DRC in search of yet another enemy of the people.
And here below she takes you through the life, career, and smidgeons of Major General Kayanja Muhanga.
Mutesi writes:
Dear Nile wires, I took particular interest in this write-up in honor of not only Major General Kayanja Muhanga, but as a tribute to the gallant sons of Uganda, who persistently put their lives online for security and peace of this nation. Life is a paradox, many times we flounder in imperceptible help of Men/Women that not everyone ever meets. This teaches us to value the contributions of people who are not part of our daily lives. May this piece symbolize a heart of citizens that soundlessly applaud the offerings of Men/Women whom we never met and or never shall we shake their hands to express our gratitude.
As I write this piece, I am reminded of the stirring poem of Theodore Roosevelt; “Man in the Arena & his Doctrine of the Strenuous Life”
Theodore Roosevelt, an adventurer, Rough Rider, President, and at 60 years old a WW I volunteer, penned this poignant poem:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I am more captivated by the last paragraph, in which Roosevelt tingles the emotions of the listener that;
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”
The last part abridges the life of Major General Kayanja Muhanga who is now the Commander of the UPDF Contingent in Eastern DRC under operation code-named “Operation Shujaa .
Here is the Man in the Arena;
Major General Kayanja Muhanga born in 1965, attended Duhaga Secondary School in Hoima district and later Mpanga Day School, in Fort Portal. He is an older brother to journalist, Andrew Mwenda, the publisher and editor of The Independent (Uganda), newsmagazine. He is a brother to Hon. Margaret Muhanga, a renowned legislator in the Ugandan Parliament for over 15 years. All from the Mzee Phillip Muhanga family of Fort Portal.
In 1985, while still in senior five (S5), he joined the NRA as a Private, serving in that position until NRA captured power in 1986. He served in the military police unit based in Kasese. He served in the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU), at the rank of Private from 1986 until 1988. Following the Junior Cadet Officer Course, he served in the office of the Chief of Combat Operations (CCO), at the rank of Second Lieutenant. He was transferred to the Directorate of Military Intelligence in 1990, serving there until 1993.
At DMI, Kayanja served under the Combat Intelligence department then headed by John Kasaija. From 1993 until 1997, he served as the Intelligence Officer, attached to the UPDF barracks in Mubende. He was assigned to the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT), at the rank of Captain. He was promoted through Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel and was posted to Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of the UPDF contingent to AMISOM. While there, he commanded Uganda’s “Battle Group Eight” and concurrently served as the deputy commander for the Ugandan contingent in Somalia, during his tenure, he battled Al-Shabaab militias that had made AMISOM operations almost impossible with Improvised Explosive Devices commonly known as IEDs. But earlier, in 2014, led the UPDF operations in South Sudan. . In February 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier.
In the just-concluded Uganda General elections, Maj. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga was appointed Kampala Joint Security Operations Coordinator, being the overall operations coordinator for all security agencies. This meant he was the link between joint operations of the police force, the military and intelligence agencies. At the time of his appointment, he had just returned from a one-year course at South Africa’s National Defence College. He also previously served as the commander of Uganda People’s Defence Force –UPDF 2nd Division based at Makenke, in Mbarara District.
On February 24, 2021 Brig Gen Muhanga Kayanja took over as the new Commander of Mountain Division in the Rwenzori Sub-region. He replaced Brig-Gen Moses Kwikiriza who was the commander of the division since 2019 when it was created. He was appointed to that position in January 2021 by General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the commander in chief of the UPDF and the President of Uganda. He currently serves as the Commander of the UPDF Contingent in Eastern DRC under operation code-named “Operation Shujaa.
Hongera sana
Gallant sons of Africa.
Mutesi Mary is the Director international Relations and communications.
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