Brig Gen Chris Ogwal, the leader of group three undertaking the recruitment of officers in the Busoga subregion, told journalists on Monday that at least four individuals were arrested for impersonating others and lacking qualifications.
“Impersonators are always there in several ways. In the morning, we got about five, and we shall hand them over to the police because I repeatedly told them not to come. They were not part of this, but they kept on coming with false information,” Brig Gen Ogwal said Monday afternoon.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) embarked on a nationwide exercise of enrolling young people into the army. In Jinja, UPDF officials camped at the district headquarters at Jinja’s Busoga Square, where the applicants were shortlisted for the recently announced initiative.
Brig Gen Ogwal said today [Monday, July 1, 2024] that they are working on Jinja district and Jinja city, where the team will base to move to other Busoga districts. Jinja city and the greater district were given a slot of 43 and 47 applicants, respectively.
“But still, those who were shortlisted were a little bit higher than the slots which were given to Jinja in anticipation of people who would be pulled out due to various reasons. And it has happened,” Ogwal said.
According to him, fifty-two shortlisted applicants from Jinja district turned up, and only thirty-two candidates were successful in the exercise that involved fitness and health tests.
About 79 candidates were obtained from Jinja city, but Ogwal said there are pending medical tests to scrutinize the qualified individuals.
“They were many here in the morning but we got only seventy-nine who met the primary qualifications pending other tests until we get the intended slots. The doctor is here carrying out blood tests. We shall shortly release the list of successful persons,” he noted.
The UPDF, according to Ogwal, needs a general number of 757 recruits in the Busoga subregion, but over 1325 candidates were shortlisted. He said they are anticipating that others may fall out during the interviews.
“We shall communicate with headquarters if we are not fulfilling the needed number or when the number is overwhelming because we can’t do it out of instructions,” he said.
However, Ogwal suggests that the overwhelming number of young people embracing the UPDF is influenced by the interesting and committed roles of the army. He said the military these days is attractive, and the youths want to serve their nation.
The recruiting is targeting individuals below twenty-two (22) years who are legitimate Ugandans with national identity cards and a minimum academic qualification of an “O” certificate.
