Uganda’s national army, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), has spoken out on reports of the death of former security minister Gen Elly Tumwine. Gen Tumwine, a veteran of the National Resistance Army (NRA) which captured power in 1986 following a five-year war, has been reported to be sick in recent days.
Reports suggest that Tumwine, who was dropped from cabinet in June 2021 and appointed a senior presidential advisor on security, was first treated at the Nakasero Hospital in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, before he was rushed to Nairobi in Kenya.
Some reports indicate that the general was in critical condition and that he was being treated at the Aga Khan Hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Meanwhile, some Ugandans on social media had gone as far as claiming that Gen Tuwmine had died on Saturday. These people flooded social media with RIP (Rest in Peace) posts.
Other unscrupulous people went as far as forging a statement they attributed to UPDF and Defence Ministry Spokesperson Brig Gen Felix Kulaigye, purporting to announce Tumwine’s death.
The statement, which Kulaigye himself has since flagged fake, read: “It is with untold grief that we announce the death of our patriotic soldier and a friend to this nation Gen. Elly Tumwine who has passed on at 10pm at Aga Khan Hospital where he was airlifted on Thursday. The UPDF shall communicate further arrangements.”
Kulaigye has also described the fake reports on Gen Tumwine’s death as “a shame” and as “wizardly.”
“If modernity is equivalent to wizardly, then I would rather remain backward. In a society with norms, NO one wishes another dead! But some people are going to a great length declare the living, dead! What a shame!” wrote the UPDF spokesperson. Meanwhile, the family of Gen Elly Tumwine has also spoken out on rumors of his death
