Since the liberation war in the bushes of Luweero Triangle, President Museveni has always stressed the need to have a professional disciplined army that respects the rights of the citizens.
Numerous stories have been told by those who fought with the old man with a hat of how officers who infringed on the rights of citizens were punished and even killed.
The President has on several occasions warned that the UPDF and other security forces must not replicate the atrocities committed by armies of past regimes.
However, with the incorporation of the LDUs in the UPDF as a reserve force, the good image is slowly being tainted with dirt and blood and the indiscipline of the LDUs is eating into police and the once cherished UPDF.
theGrapevine takes a deep look into what went wrong.
LDUs AS RESERVE FORCE
In March last year, president Yoweri Museveni the Commander in Chief (CiC) of the armed forces passed out over 6,436 Local Defense Unity (LDUs) to beef up police, army and other security agencies in the fight against the rampant crime around the country.
In 2018, in his security address to the nation, Museveni ordered the recruitment of over 24,000 LDUs to fight urban crime and most of them were deployed in urban centers especially in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono.
However, president’s dream of fishing out criminals in the society has turned into a nightmare and innocent Ugandans are losing their lives and hundreds have survived with serious injuries.
The situation worsened when the president declared a curfew and lockdown among other directives to fight the deadly COVID19 pandemic.
Many LDUs knowingly or unknowingly misinterpreted the presidential directives.

President Museveni passing out LDUs
LDUs HAVE KILLED MORE UGANDANS THAN COVID19
According to investigations made by this website, LDUs have killed more Ugandans than Covid19 in the months of March, April, May and June.
Uganda currently has 977 Covid19 positive cases with no death and over ten deaths as a result of LDU brutality with many causalities.
Most Ugandans we have talked said that you have 99.9% chances of surviving death if you contract Covid19 but 1% chance of surviving if you meet an angry LDU officer.
Most of the affected people are boda boda riders, pregnant women and people in upcountry areas.
On May 8th, an LDU officer killed a man and a pregnant woman in Masaka Municipality along Elgin Street.
On May 12th 2020, an LDU officer shot dead 46-year-old Alfred Mwanga of Kapkwata village in Kapkwata Parish in Kapkwata Sub County in Kween District and injured David Denis Chemusto.
On 7th July 2020, UPDF 5th division Court Martial sentenced an LDU officer Pte. Jolly Thomas Opoka to life imprisonment for killing Francis Ogwang, a 65 year old man.
Recently in Lukaya, an LDU officer hit a boda boda cyclist with a gun killing him instantly.
Today, during the opening of plenary, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP) Betty Awol Ochan disclosed that LDUs killed one person in Oyam, one in Kasese and one in Agago.
Female youth MP Anna Abaju Adeke revealed that Emmanuel Tegu, a third-year Veterinary Medicine student of Makerere University was allegedly beaten to death by LDU officers even though police denied these allegations.
Among those who have survived the wrath of these LDUs with serious injuries include; Ali Waswa a journalist with vision group based in Mbarara was badly beaten by UPDF soldiers and LDUs attached to Makenke in Mbarara district.
Ms. Olivia Pita, a resident of Moyo district sustained deep wounds on her forehead after being beaten by LDUs. She claims that she was found burning rubbish in her home.
Beatrice Kabatembuzi, a resident of Kanara Town Council in Ntoroko district claims that she was beaten by LDUs when they found her cooking food on her verandah.
On Tuesday, Mulengeranews reported that Soroti Resident judge Wilson Masalu Musene and David Wangutsi, a High court judge of the commercial court admitted that they were beaten by LDU officers.
On Tuesday evening, Joseph Luzige, the Mityana district chairperson was humiliated and insulted by LDU officers for trying to stop them from beating a boda boda rider who was carrying a pregnant woman.
These are some of the cases that have seen the light of day, but many go unnoticed.

Security expert Egesa
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
To establish how deep this rot is, this website went an extra mile and talked to prominent human rights defenders and security experts.
Celebrated private investigator and security expert David Fredrick Egesa, he revealed that recruiting LDUs was a wrong project.
Egesa guided that the president was supposed to first weigh his decision of deploying people who are not well trained in society.
Egesa said that LDUs were supposed to cook food for UPDF not to put on their uniform because they even lack the basic law.
He insisted that the country is sitting on a time bomb, “LDUs will one day exchange bullets with police because each of them thinks that they are superior to the other.”
Lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told theGrapevine that you cannot divorce the actions LDU from UPDF because it’s under its command.
He insisted that whatever LDU is doing is supervised by UPDF and one time a top commander of UPDF told them to kill Ugandans because they were trained to kill.

Human Rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo
“LDUs are mere sub-contractors of the UPDF on serious crimes which would have been committed by the army. In every election cycle we have paramilitary groups that commit the same crimes, we had crime preventers do the same crimes, there is a pattern here of the use of paramilitary groups to collude elections, from Kiboko squad, crime preventers now LDUs and they all come during elections. You cannot look at LDUs in isolation but in the context of being used as a paramilitary group sub contracted by the state to carry out violence,” Opiyo noted.
He bears the same opinion with Constitutional lawyer Peter Walubiri who stated that UPDF which is essentially president Museveni’s NRA has been leaving a deceptive life and what the LDUs are doing is to show the true character of the UPDF.
He insisted that NRA from the days of Luwero, Teso insurgency, Congo have been implicated in human rights abuses including torture and murder.
“When you read reports from human rights Commission and Amnesty international for the past 30 years, you will see that all these things are not new. Who killed people in Kasese? Who killed people when Buganda Premier Walusimbi was stopped from going to Bugerere in 2009? It wasn’t LDUs but UPDF. People have been tortured in safe houses, Kireka Special Investigation Units and Nalufenya by the military,” the soft spoken lawyer said.
Veteran investigative journalist Stanley Ndawula wondered why LDU was put under the command of a professional army of the UPDF, he explained that some of the LDU commanders are disgruntled and drunkards who are excited because they are getting a lot of money through extortion.
He prayed to the appointing authority to disband LDU and allow police to take over their duties before the two groups exchange bullets.
He noted that he witnessed a scenario where an LDU officer took over the command of an operation from a DPC including the suspects they had come to arrest.

Journalist Stanley Ndawula
UPDF SPEAKS OUT
Efforts to speak to Major Bilal Katamba the spokesperson of the LDUs were futile since he was not picking our calls or responding to our messages.
When we contacted, UPDF spokesperson Brig. Richard Karemire did not pick our calls while his deputy Lt. Col. Deo Akiika’s phones were off.
However, on the Mityana incident, Brig. Karemire released a statement today regretting that the incident happened.
“The UPDF regrets this gross act of indiscipline that is not characteristic of the UPDF as a people’s army. We wish to restate that discipline remains a core value and bedrock on which the UPDF was founded. Anyone who deviates from this will always be punished according to the established laws. There are examples to prove this in the recent past like a soldier in Kasese was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment and an LDU personnel were yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment all because of unprofessional conduct.
We therefore strongly condemn this act meted out against one of our senior civilian leaders,” Brig Karemire said.
He added, “The UPDF wishes to reiterate its full commitment and loyalty to the people of Uganda and will always remain subordinate to the civilian authority as provided for under Article 208 of the Constitution.
There is no need to lose heart over these incidents. A comprehensive review of these deployments to enforce anti-COVID 19 measures is soon to take place and we expect better results.”

Speaker Kadaga
SPEAKER DIRECTS MINISTER TO EXPLAIN
The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga today directed the Minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Jeje Odong to explain to Parliament and the country, the circumstances surrounding the death of Emmanuel Tegu, a third year student at Makerere University, allegedly killed by LDUs.
“You would imagine that the University is a safe place for our children to be but this has happened. Secondly, I think it’s time Government explained to Ugandans what they have done to the LDUs who have beaten and killed people – because the reports are there,” she said.
She added, “We want answers. Why is it that no LDU has been prosecuted? What action has been taken against these LDUs? We want answers from the Minister of Internal Affairs by Tuesday next week.”
By Sengooba Alirabaki
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