Body of Gen. Kuteesa brought back from India

According to the UPDF Spokesperson, the body of Late Lt Gen Pecos Kuteesa has been  brought back today from India.

 It was received at Entebbe International Airport by Lt Gen James Mugira and Maj Gen Leopold Kyanda among other UPDF Generals and family members.

Lt Gen Pecos Kutesa, a former bush war hero,  died on 17 August  aged 65 after a long illness. 

He was first admitted to a Nairobi hospital before he was flown to India for urgent specialised care.

His death came after he retired from the army on August 5.

“UPDF fraternity regrets to announce the passing on of Lt Gen Pecos Kutesa which occurred today (Tuesday) in India,” UPDF spokesperson, Brig Flavia Byekwaso, said in a statement yesterday.

Before he retired, Gen Kutesa was the Chief of Doctrine Synthesisation and Development under the Ministry of Defence.

Gen Kutesa will be remembered as one of the fearless NRA commanders.  

Those who knew him talked of “a real soldier” who executed deadly missions with self-assurance and devotion. He was a born of Kabura, Lyantonde District.

The late began his military career in 1976 when he joined FRONASA, one of the military groups formed to fight the late President Idi Amin Dada. 

He was trained at Munduli Military Academy in Tanzania and after the fall of Amin, he was sent to Nakasongola Military Training School.

In 1981, Kutesa deserted the army and joined Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels fighting to remove Milton Obote. 

In his book “Uganda’s Revolution 1979-1986: How I Saw It”  Kutesa says he joined FRONASA after completing S.6 at Masaka Secondary School.

In this book, the former guerrilla-combatant, who became a member of the Uganda Constituent Assembly in 1994, narrates his story during the war and details how he was forced to quit his initial deployment as part of the security team of the Chairman of the High Command, Yoweri Museveni, to go on the frontline. Kutesa traced his own growth and development from a naive young student to an adult troubled by political turmoil and presents his own reasons for joining the struggle and discusses the various roles he played in the course of the war and afterwards

He offered glimpses into the attitudes, mindsets and personalities of the various actors in this war; when they are under great pressure at the frontline and in more relaxed circumstances.

On account of delayed promotion, Kutesa at some point applied for retirement but his request was not granted. 

He was the only surviving section commander of the NRA force that attacked Kakiri in 1981.