Owor Kipenji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Army explains Museveni uniform
By Alex Atuhaire
Aug 24, 2004
KAMPALA - The army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, yesterday defended President Museveni’s continued wearing of military fatigues despite having quit the army early this year.
Bantariza said Museveni still holds the position of Commander-In-Chief and the position entitles him to the uniform among other things. “There is no contradiction,” he said. “His retirement from the army was a fulfillment of the law. What he does now is not in any contradiction of the legal provisions of our statute,” Bantariza told The Monitor in a telephone interview last evening.
President Museveni who was officially retired from the UPDF on April 1, has continued to don military fatigues in public, the latest being when he was addressing public rallies in Gulu and when he was pictured meeting the Buganda delegation during the federo talks. This has raised questions over why the president was still behaving as a serving officer.
Bantariza, however, yesterday dispelled such questions. “Once a soldier, always a soldier unless you have been expelled from the army,” he said.
He said the President Museveni is entitled to ceremonial uniform, which he publicly said he doesn’t like putting but there is no law barring him from putting on the combat uniform because he is the Commander-In-Chief.
Bantariza said the president is only not entitled to salary from the army.
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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