A fresh nationwide recruitment exercise for Local Defense Units (LDU’s) kicks off today in several areas in the country. The Uganda People’s Defense Forces intend to conduct a subsequent recruitment exercise of 13,000 from selected districts in Central, Eastern, Northern and Mid-Western Uganda.
The exercise will cover 83 Districts in Central, Lango, Karamoja and Acholi sub region. The recruitment exercise handled by UPDF will run from 15 – 31 July 2019, and it is the first to be extended to upcountry areas having successfully recruited 6400 LDU’s in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono.
According to the spokesperson of First Division Kakiri Maj. Biral Katamba, the extension of recruitment is in response to calls from different areas of the country for more LDU deployment to address security concerns in those areas.
“We have been receiving calls from other parts of the country including Mityana, Mubende, and other parts of the country by people asking for this. Our bosses found it necessary to extend the recruitment to all regions.” said Maj. Katamba.
The recruitment is aimed at enhancing the existing foundation security arrangement in the country to ensure the people and their property are secured at grass root levels.
The recruits will receive four months of basic military training from UPDF training schools and upon completion, the LDUs shall be deployed to serve in their respective districts of recruitment.
Eligible candidates must be citizens of Uganda, healthy and medically fit, must have attained a minimum formal education of P.7 and a maximum of S.4, residents of the area with recommendations from various local leaders, disciplined and with no criminal record.
Katamba says the recruits will undergo training for 4 – 6 months, and upon completion receive an allowance of 200,000 shillings for every month spent in training.
According to the release by UPDF, recruitment in Greater Masaka will kick off today 15, 07, 2019 at Lyantonde District Headquarters, Tomorrow 16th at Kyotera District Headquarters, and potential recruits from Districts of Masaka, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, Lwego, Kalagala, Sembabule will on Wednesday converge at Masaka District Headquarters for selection.
The recruitment comes after training and deployment of 6400 LDU’s in Metropolitan Kampala following President Yoweri Museveni’s directive of recruiting about 24,000 LDUs to tighten up security in the Kampala Metropolitan area, after a spate of killing rocked the country.