President Museveni has ordered compulsory yearly physical tests for every soldier, effective March 2017, army chief Gen Katumba Wamala has said.
He disclosed this while receiving donations of six trophies and football uniforms for 18 UPDF teams that will participate in the 2016 Chief of Defence Forces’ Cup, which started on Monday in Mbale.
“It’s a must for every serving officer and militant to pass the test. The tests will form part of the criteria for retirement or discharge.”
Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, the army spokesperson, said the president ordered the annual mandatory fitness tests to keep soldiers fit to be able to engage any enemy within and outside our county.
“This is to instruct that all officers of the army [UPDF] have, as a must, to undergo body fitness tests including medical tests to ensure that they are fit enough to defend the state and the people. And this will begin next year [2017],” he noted.
“This instruction was given by the commander-in-chief and also reiterated by the chief of defence forces [CDF] and we are saying it must be followed to the letter.”
He declined to say what will happen to soldiers who will fail the tests, the unfit, the sick or those who might dodge the exercise. Museveni’s order comes in the wake of several sudden deaths of senior military officers such as Lt Gen Elly Karuhanga and Gen Aronda Nyakairima.
Karuhanga, who died in April, was the chairman of the General Court Martial while Nyakairima was internal affairs minister at the time of his death in September 2015 as a result of a cardiac arrest.
Reacting to the new development, retired Brig Kasirye Gwanga praised Museveni. He said medical and physical tests are a wonderful innovation for the army.
“I am happy my president has realized this. Professional armies undergo mandatory physical fitness periodically. I pray that it also involves those at the old age like me,” he said.
Having served in several armies from the seventies, Gwanga said that some army officers are as lazy as civilians and don’t want to reduce their sizes like he does.
“At times I look at big stomachs of soldiers and feel ashamed to be serving in the same army with such fellows,” he said.
However, Gwanga warns that fitness exercises go hand in hand with issues like giving soldiers good food.
slubwama@observer.ug