Gen Kasirye Gwanga: Maverick officer feared but loved by many
To many, whenever controversy, proud, and arrogance were mentioned, Maj.Gen. Kasirye Ggwanga’s name came into the picture, but to others, he was down to earth, brave and disciplinarian.
However, above all, he never cared of what many thought of him and to show this, whenever something was said, he would puff his cigar and take a sip of liquor.
This is the maverick Kasirye Gwganga that many Ugandans loved.
In 2013, when the talk of the Muhoozi project that saw former spymaster, Gen.David Ssejusa go into exile started, Kasirye Ggwanga didn’t go without chipping in a word about the project.
He warned the president against touting the idea of his son succeeding, adding it would be met with stiff resistance.
“Succession talk is useless and the moment he comes up with his son as a successor, he has got problems with Kasirye Ggwanga. (There should be) no civilian politics in the army. Don’t underestimate us, otherwise you are playing with fire,” he said in an interview with Daily Monitor.
“But who is succeeding who? Whom did Gen. Museveni succeed? He came fighting! We were all fighting. I am 60 years old and we have seen it all! Let me warn that boy (Brig. Muhoozi), not even to think of taking over Uganda. Uganda will take care of itself.”
Backtracks
However, the maverick UPDF general seven years later backtracked on his comments.“ Let him (Lt.Gen. Kainerugaba)come out for himself. He is a General, he has the training from Sandhurst that convinces me that he can be a leader,” Ggwanga said while appearing on NBS TV’s Morning Breeze show on March 17, 2020.
He praised Kainerugaba: “The military today is not the military yesterday, me when I was shooting bombs I used to use a compass and a protractor, today they are using GPS.”
Mubende escapades
The maverick general also served as the Mubende district LC5 chairman and by the time he left, he was loved and hated in equal measures by locals.
First, he championed the prosperity of Mubende district and the tall, talkative but careful Kasirye Ggwanga flashed out robbers and other wrongdoers from the area.
He forced locals engage in self-help projects and would not tolerate laziness.
Kasirye Ggwanga never spared his rod in case need arose.
For civil servants, he was a feared man because he moved from office to office in the morning to check whether they had reported to office, making Mubende district popular and won the title of “ Mubende Governor”.
Dares magistrate
In 2006, the Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate, Margret Tibulya issued a warrant of arrest for Ggwanga after he had failed to appear for plea taking after being accused of 11 counts of threatening violence and conspiracy to murder.
The maverick general who was at the time, the LC5 chairman of Mubende said he would not appear in court and that if the Chief Magistrate wished, he was waiting for her.
“If I have a case, let the army be informed and I face my charges in the General Court Martial in Makindye. But I will not report to Buganda Road Court,” he said later.
On time, he was asked whether he had a Christian name but the maverick soldier said he didn’t need one.
“I am military man, just know that. My other name is Wasswa,”he said.
No vigil for Maj.Gen.Kasirye Ggwanga; selected UPDF officers, family members to attend burial
Burns tractor
On August 12, 2017, the no nonsense UPDF soldier set ablaze the tractor that was found clearing land located at Lubowa,Naziba zone in Makindye Sssabagabo that he said belonged to his sister.
According to the owner of the tractor, after it started grading, the maverick general came and set it ablaze forcing the driver to take off for his life.
Other eyewitnesses said on the fateful day, Kasirye Ggwanga came with his gun, corked it but returned it to his vehicle, only to return with a matchbox and set the tractor ablaze.
He later bragged of having done it to teach land grabbers a lesson.
“I burnt that tractor. Tell them. I am now hunting them. I am a bad hunter. Let them know,” he told the Daily Monitor in an interview.
Speaking to the Observer he said: “As a veteran of many wars, you have to instill a bit of fear whenever you sense looming danger because if you don’t do that, people can trample on you. You saw what happened to the ‘idiot’ who wanted to steal my land in Kajjansi…since then no land grabber has ever troubled people in that area. So, for me, I prefer to use deterrent methods instead of reconciliatory ways.”
Shoots Kusasira’s car tyres
In January, 2019, Ggwanga was again in the news for shooting and deflating the tyres for NRM leaning singer Catherine Kusasira’s vehicle in Makindye.
The maverick general said Kusasira’s employees who were driving the car had disrespected his children.
“”I found them abusing my boy. My boy is an American, I raise my children from America and the boy is going back soon,” Maj. Gen. Gwanga said after the incident.
Boasts
Speaking in a separate interview after the incident, Kasirye Gwanga said he wanted to teach a lesson to Kusasira and his boys.
He said that when his son reported to his that some people were playing loud music and had blocked him on the road, he reported to the scene.
“When I came, I saw a huge lady asking what was going on. I asked her(Kusasira) why they behaved like that but she warned me to back off,”Kasirye Gwanga said.
He added:“I told her I am a general but in response, she told me I was not the first general. I told her, you seen many general but you are going to see one you had never seen. Here I am ( shoots).”
Kasirye Ggwanga later admitted he had not known that the fracas involved Kusasira and that he got to know that it was her on the news.
Retires from army, returns three months later
On January, 31, 2005, Kasirye Ggwanga was retired from the active service of the UPDF at the rank of brigadier.
However, three months later, he moved out of retirement and was reinstated into the army on a five year renewable contract.
In 2018, was promoted from the rank of brigadier to Major General.
What surprised many was that at the decoration ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Mbuya, Ggwanga was a no-show prompting many to speculate that the controversial general didn’t want to salute Gen. David Muhoozi , the Chief of Defence Forces whom he always regarded as his junior in the military.
The Master of Ceremonies at the function said Gen Gwanga was absent for some reason but didn’t divulge the reasons behind his missing.
Earlier, while appearing on NBS TV, he said : “I cannot salute these young chaps.”
Later, the army spokesperson, Brig. Richard Karemire defended Kasirye Ggwanga’s absence.
“It is not necessary for one to attend the decoration ceremony. It is okay if exigencies of duty never allowed him to attend.”
Later that year 2018, Ggwanga was retired for the second time from the active service of the army but he looked so frail that he needed services of one of her daughters to support him as the commander in chief saw off several generals.
Loves his dog
Kasirye Ggwanga on several occasions insisted that dogs are better than human bodyguards and this explains why he always had one by his side where he was moving.
“I like the dogs to guard me because they can never betray me like people. I don’t even trust my bodyguards more than my dogs,” he once said.
However, despite all these controversies, Maj.Gen. Kasirye Ggwanga was a free spirited man who interacted with everyone .
This partly explains the many pictures of him posing with other people that took over social media, shortly after his death, with many describing them as ” a hero whose gun had gone silent on heroes day.”
Many of the photos were taken from his home he had named “Camp David.”
Biography
He was born Samuel Wasswa Kasirye Ggwanga to a father who was a hunter and farmer in 1952. Kasirye Ggwanga learnt both skills and by the time of his death, he was still good at them.
He attended Katakala Primary School, and later Kibuli Secondary School for his O-Level from where he joined the Uganda Army in 1972 at the age of 20.
Kasirye Gwanga was first deployed West Nile as a map reader but was captured in 1978 and taken as the prisoner of war by the Tanzanian army and on release, he joined the late Andrew Lutakome Kayiira’s Uganda Freedom Movement.
However, in 1985, he ditched UFM for the National Resistance Army(NRA) rebels commanded by President Museveni.
He participated in the 1986 attack on Kampala as the NRA rebels captured power.
Between 1986 and 2005, he served in several roles including as the LC5 chairman for Mubende District and as the director of stores in the UPDF.
He also served as the presidential adviser on Buganda issues.
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