Daily Monitor
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
President Museveni yesterday promoted Maj. Gen. Andrew Guti to the rank
of Lieutenant General and deployed him to Mogadishu to replace Maj. Gen.
Fred Mugisha as the African Union force commander in Somalia.
Gen.
Mugisha’s tenure in Mogadishu has been cut short by a year in surprise
changes that follow the reconfiguration of Amisom command structure
which requires the new Amisom commander to be at the rank of Lieutenant
General.
According to the new Amisom outlook, two officers at the rank of major general from Burundi and Kenya will deputise Gen. Guti.The army spokesperson, Col. Felix Kulayigye confirmed the
changes, saying Gen. Guti, who has been the commandant of the Senior
Command and Staff College, Kimaka, will command Burundian, Kenyan,
Djiboutian, Ugandans and Sierra Leonians who are joining the mission in
June.
Burundi will be in charge of logistics while Kenya,
whose forces are deployed in the south of South Mogadishu, will be
overseeing Amisom operations.
Col. Kulayigye said Gen. Mugisha could not be
promoted to remain the force commander “because it’s less than a year
ago” since he was promoted to Major General.
“It would be unfair,” he said, “the
Commander-in-Chief has the right to appoint and promote the soldiers at
his will,” Col. Kulayigye said.
Uganda will have an expanded role to command 17,731 troops from Djibouti, Kenya, Burundi and Sierra Leone.
Other
changes, according to military sources, include the director of
intelligence in the airforce, Lt. Col. Michael Kisaami, who has been
promoted to Colonel and made the deputy military intelligence boss.
The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has not been
having a substantive deputy chief after Col. Dominic Twesigomwe was sent
for a military course in Nairobi
Lt. Col. Richard Otto is the new director of
intelligence for Land Forces while Lt. Col. Chris Ddamulira is the new
deputy boss of the Joint Anti Terrorism unit under CMI.