The Uganda People Defense Forces (UPDF) has refuted allegations by a section of Ugandans that there was a change of lists for the shortlisted Local Defense Unit (LDU) personnel.
The army spokesperson, Brig. Flavia Byekwaso said the complaints were raised from Butambala, Nakasongola, Kole and Butaleja districts.
“Some of these issues have already gone to the floor of Parliament but I want to say that this is totally false,” she noted.
She explained that all lists from the districts were sent to Bombo for assessment, and only those who were successful made it the shortlist.
“There were a lot of considerations that were used for selections of the candidates. Most of them almost had what we wanted like the O’level certificate and its equivalent among other requirements, but those who were better than others were considered, and made it to the list, not forgetting that we wanted a few out of the many who turned up,” she noted.
She said there was an overwhelming turn up of applicants.
“We only wanted 10,500 but got more than 40,000 who turned up in the exercise,” she added.
Ferrying of recruits
Byekwaso said there were other allegations of ferrying recruits from one district to another, which is also false.
“This is another absurd allegation. Part of the criteria was submitting a stamped letter from the LC1 and District Internal Security Officers (DISO). This was intended to ensure that only those known persons by the LC1 would be eligible. This was deliberate to ensure no person would be recruited when they are not from those areas or working there. We have scenarios where some people are not born in those areas, but their parents work there,” she noted.
She stressed that part of the requirement was for all those who wanted to join to present their national IDs to ensure all those recruited are Ugandans.
However, she said investigations are being conducted into some allegations, stressing that all those who will be found culpable will be dealt with accordingly.
“I also want to inform applicants who would have passed through forgery, that the process of verification of documents continues. If anyone is discovered to have forged any document, it will be an automatic dismissal even if it is a day to ending the training. We put this criterion to do due diligence during the exercise and protect the integrity of the force,” she noted.
