UPDF Officer Kayanja Muhanga has been appointed the new commander of Land forces of the UPDF replacing the first son Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Muhanga is a battle hardened officer of the UPDF fighting on the frontlines in South Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Lieutenant General Kayanja Muhanga was born in 1965 and is a Ugandan army officer who is currently serving as a commander of Operation Shujaa which is a UPDF and D.R.C army joint operation against the ADF Terror group in eastern D.R.C.
He was appointed to that position in January 2021 by General Yoweri Museveni, the Commander in Chief of the UPDF and the President of Uganda.
Prior to that, Muhanga served as the commandant of the military police.
Early life
Kayanja Muhanga was born in Fort Portal, Kabarole District, Western Uganda in 1965 and is an elder brother to journalist, Andrew Mwenda.
He is also a brother to state Minister for health, Margaret Muhanga,
Education
He attended Duhaga Secondary School in Hoima district and later Mpanga Day School, in Fort Portal. In 1985, while still in S5, he joined the Luweero Bush war with then rebel group National Resistance Army (NRA) led by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
He attended the Cadet Officers Course at the Uganda Military Academy in 1988 at the Ghadafi barracks in Jinja.
In the UPDF
He joined the NRA at the rank of Private, serving in that position until NRA captured power in 1986. He served in the military police unit based in Kasese.
He served in the Presidential Protection Unit at the rank of private from 1986 until 1988. Following the Junior Cadet Officer Course, he served in the office of the Chief of Combat Operations, at the rank of second lieutenant.
He was transferred to the Directorate of Military Intelligence in 1990, serving there until 1993. From 1993 until 1997, he served as an Intelligence Officer, attached to the UPDF barracks in Mubende.
He was assigned to the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce, at the rank of Captain. He was promoted through Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel and was posted to Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of the UPDF contingent to AMISOM. While there, he commanded Uganda’s “Battle Group Eight” and concurrently served as the deputy commander for the Ugandan contingent in Somalia.
After Somalia he served as the Chief of the Military Police in the UPDF, until January 2014. In January 2014, Colonel Kayanja Muhanga was appointed Commander of the UPDF Operations in South Sudan. In 2022, Following the 2021 twin bombings in Kampala, Muhanga led the UPDF Operation code named Shujaa to flush out the ADF Terror group from it’s stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
