Prime
Muzeyi: Gifted student and firm commander
New position. Deputy IGP Sabiti Muzeyi makes a call during a blood donation drive at Makindye Military Barracks yesterday. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Through the ranks. He joined the army in 1997 and later served in the Presidential Protection Unit rising to number two in the elite force.
- After training in Russia, Muzeyi returned to be promoted to a Brigadier, was assigned to command the Military Police until Sunday when the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces decided that his skills are required to undergird IGP-designate Martin Okoth-Ochola.
Brig Sabiti Muzeyi’s unspoken power lies in being affable and his ability to listen to all, whether juniors or seniors, and acting firmly at work.
A brilliant student who obtained a First Class degree in Bio-Chemistry from Makerere University, the Military Police commander named on Sunday as the new Deputy Inspector General of Police rolls up his sleeve many honours.
He enlisted in the army on June 6, 1997, joining the then Presidential Protection Unit (PPU), now the Special Forces Command (SFC).
The basic training at Kasenyi Training Wing in Entebbe was gruelling.
Sails through training
Twenty-three out of the 117 recruits in Brig Muzeyi’s cohort dropped out.
He took the ‘baptism of fire’ induction with grace and manoeuvre, emerging the best.
As is customary with military training, successful graduates are given a two-week break to visit relatives.
When he went home in Kashari, Mbarara District, a new destiny awaited him. The parents opposed his military profession.
They decided he returns to school, having established a stellar academic foundation. This was after his brief stint in general duties under PPU during former United States President Bill Clinton’s 1998 visit.
Muzeyi later enrolled for graduate studies where he lectured undergraduate students. But what fate has ordained no man can put asunder.
The ship hauling his career made a U-turn navigation back into the military. The government came knocking, this time to recruit officers to join the Special Revenue Protection Services or SRPS, the defunct military arm of Uganda Revenue Authority.
The late 1990s recruitment drive was irresistible for Muzeyi who, instead of joining SRPS, crossed back into the warm embrace of PPU.
There, he rose to first command battalions before his meaty pick as the number two in the elite force.
Those who have worked with him say he is a strict disciplinarian.
Then PPU was renamed the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) under the command of First Son, Maj Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Muzeyi deputised him.
When Muhoozi went for a military course in South Africa, Brig Sabiiti became his understudy. He had by this time been elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
A Cadet course at the Senior Command and Staff College in Jinja had already prepared him for the leadership task.
When the PGB was transformed into the Special Forces, with expanded role and functions, both Muhoozi and Muzeyi retained their respective slots.
The First Son was promoted to a one-star general while Sabiti became a Colonel.
The expanded responsibility required higher-level training.
Muzeyi got a slot to train at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
A reported ban by the US government on Ugandan Special Forces to train at its institutions over human rights violations at home cost Muzeyi the opportunity.
President Museveni, in an apparent kick in the teeth for the Americans, decided to send the soft-spoken Muzeyi for training in Russia, a geo-political and military rival of US.
He returned to be promoted to a Brigadier, was assigned to command the Military Police until Sunday when the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces decided that his skills are required to undergird IGP-designate Martin Okoth-Ochola.
