Army issues new retirement rules

Kampala. The Ugandan army has issued new retirement guidelines, telling officers aged 50 at the ranks of major and below to voluntarily apply for retirement.

However, a senior UPDF officer at the rank of Brigadier has questioned why the new proposal targets only junior, not senior officers who have for long been pushing for retirement without success.

He told the Daily Monitor that a big number of senior army officers have applied for retirement but the UPDF Promotions and Retirement board has not approved their requests, causing suspicion that government is involuntarily holding these officers who are seen to be anti-regime. The new communication was released by the Chief of Personnel and Administration, Brig Leopold Kyanda, on June 21.

The deputy army spokesperson, Maj Robert Ngabirano confirmed the new proposal, saying it was meant for officers only at the tactical and operational level.

“He (CPA) issued it in the spirit of guiding the lower units at the tactical and operational levels for voluntary retirement guidelines,” he said.

He said tactical and operational officers are field commanders at the level of battalion and below and their role involves tedious work including walking with foot soldiers even in rough terrain.

“Since we operate in the Central African Republic and Somalia and we need to maintain the tempo and resolve to fight the enemy, we need energetic officers to take on the mantle,” he said.

It’s illegal, according to the UPDF Conditions and Terms of Service to have an officer at the rank of captain or major, aged 50 in active service.

If at the age of 40, a captain is not promoted to the rank of major, the army must retire the officer, but there are captain who are over 50 years and are still serving.

Regulation 28, Cap 307 of the terms of service specifies at which age an officer should be promoted to another rank, if not be retired from the service but according to army sources, UPDF has flouted its own regulations.

From the rank of Lieutenant to Captain one can apply for retirement at 40 years, while a major can leave service at 45.

A Lieutenant colonel can retire at 47 and a colonel’s retirement age is 51. The army code also specifies the years of service upon which an officer can rightly apply for retirement but some have doubled the required number of years and are still waiting to be retired.

From the rank of Second Lieutenant to General an officer can rightly apply for retirement after 14 years of service while the lower ranks can retire at Nine years.

The Coordinator of Intelligence Agencies, Gen David Sejusa, who is now holed up in London, says he has severally tried to retire from the army but has been refused despite 30 years of service. He has accused President Museveni of using military law to hold army officers “hostage”, an allegation the army has dismissed.

“That’s not true. The reason why these high ranking army officers have not been retired is because of budget constraints. Retiring them would need a serious budget planning that would see spending of billions of shillings, which government will find hard to get,” Maj Ngabirano said.

President Museveni appointed a committee in May, chaired by Gen Salim Saleh to come up with streamlined retirement guidelines and a report is yet to be submitted.

“We are waiting for the report and see how to move forward,” Maj Ngabirano said.

Gen Sejusa said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) that the former Forum for Democratic Change President, Dr Kizza Besigye and other former army officers who have joined the opposition were retired from the army by default.