PRESIDENT MUSEVENI RECEIVES HIGHEST UPDF MEDAL

BY Aggrey Rwesigye
MBARARA

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been decorated with the order of Katonga star, the highest military decoration of the Ugandan honours system.

Museveni was decorated at the 42nd Tarehe Sita Anniversary celebrations by chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo,a day recognized every February 6, to mark the beginning of the 1981-86 National Resistance Army (NRA) guerrilla war with an attack on Kabamba military barracks.

The highest and most rarely decorated military decoration is awarded to individuals who have portrayed extra-ordinary instances of heroism in the army.

The instances referred to are those that involve voluntary acceptance of additional danger beyond the call of duty and risk of life. The President (or where the President is the beneficiary, the Chief Justice) shall be the only person to make presentations of The Order of Katonga.

The Order may be decorated to an individual more than once on different occasions; and apart from order awarded on the very first time, a bar attached to the ribbon by which the order is suspended shall record each subsequent award Order of Katonga derived the name from a very decisive battle that signified the final victory of the NRA as it fought to capture power.

The second highest medal in the Ugandan military,the kabalega medal was awarded to two retired army generals that is the National coordinator for Operation Wealth creation (OWC) who is also Museveni’s brother Gen.Caleb Akandwanaho alias Salim Saleh and Gen.Ivan Koreta.

In his speech,President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has revealed that the government will roll out mass irrigation of crops across the country in the coming financial year.

The president however expressed concern over a number of Ugandans that have continued to encroach on wetlands, government forests and other natural resources which puts this country’s future at stake.

President Museveni further alluded the people of Ankore who went through the invasion of 1972 and 1979 war when the NRA captured Mbarara town.

The 42nd.Tarehe Sita Anniversary celebrations went down at Kakyeka stadium in Mbarara city under the theme “Recognizing the sacrifice of the founders of the people’s revolution for social economic transformation”