Construction of military museum starts soon – UPDF

The much-anticipated construction of a multibillion national military museum will commence before the end of the current fiscal year, Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) have revealed.

On December 29, 2020, armed forces Commander-in-Chief, President Museveni, launched the project near the River Katonga Bridge on the Kampala-Masaka Highway in Mpigi District.

“We were allocated some funds and we shall be commencing construction very soon,” defense public information Brig Felix Kulayigye told Monitor on Friday.

According to him, the delaying factor is now the compensation process for the extra land (12 acres) they still need for the project.

“The land has occupants and they have to leave after a thorough compensation process which is ongoing. So, immediately after that, we shall commence actual construction works,” Brig Kulayigye explained.

Initially, the army had allocated one acre for the project. Last year, it emerged that the army had slashed the budget for the museum by Shs40 billion, implying that Shs70billlion will eventually be spent on the project.

According to deputy defence public information office Col Deo Akiiki, the cut followed a review of the project budget   by the steering committee for the military museum. The said committee is currently chaired by Maj Gen Henry Matsiko, who doubles as the UPDF chief political commissar.

However, he declined to reveal the actual reasons behind the budget   cut.

Once completed, the museum is intended to preserve the history of the Ugandan military to benefit current and future generations, Col Akiiki emphasized. 

Deceased Gen Pecos Kuteesa, who was the first chairperson of the project’s steering committee, selected Katonga as the site for the museum to immortalise the area as a defining spot where NRA rebels fought a bloody war to achieve victory.

In September 1985, Katonga Bridge was a battlefield between Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) soldiers and Museveni led NRA fighters as the latter attempted to cross to Kampala from Masaka direction.

Fighting at the bridge lasted four months and is recorded in Uganda’s military history as one of the bloodiest battles the country has ever witnessed. After gaining control of the bridge, it made the NRA's eventual assault on Kampala much easier.

Even during the 1979 liberation war that toppled former President Idi Amin Dada, scores of Libyan soldiers who were fighting alongside the then national army, were killed at the same bridge.

The killing of the Libyan soldiers was blow to state forces, consequently leading to Amin’s downfall. 

To remember the fallen Libyan soldiers, the government erected a giant billboard with photos of Uganda’s veteran president Museveni and murdered Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi- at the same site.