General David Sejusa of Uganda is set to retire from the military after more than two decades of strained relations with President Yoweri Museveni.
The defense spokesperson announced Gen Sejusa’s retirement in a tweet on Thursday.
The tweet reads; “Gen David Sejusa has today been documented for retirement at MoDVA/UPDF Headquarters in Mbuya. He will be retired under Batch 12 in July this year.”
His first attempt to retire in 1996 was rejected by army leadership, and was followed by a series of run-ins with the law.
After accusing President Yoweri Museveni of grooming his son to be Uganda’s next leader, Gen Sejusa fled to exile in the United Kingdom in 2013. The government has denied the existence of any such plan on numerous occasions.
After agreeing to renounce violence and obey the law, the four-star general returned home 18 months later.
In 2016, he was charged with insubordination in a military court for attending political rallies against the chief of defense forces’ orders. He was also accused of being absent without official leave. He denied the allegations.
The general was photographed filling out retirement paperwork at the Ministry of Defence. Gen Sejusa had been viewed as a close ally of Mr Museveni until he went into exile.
He fought in the guerrilla conflict that brought the president to power in 1986.
On February 17, 2012, David Tinyefuza officially changed his name to David Sejusa. He said that Sejusa is a family name that is also reflected on some of his academic documents but that he had abandoned it “around secondary school level” but that he would re-claim as “everybody back home” refers to him as such. He added: “There is nothing in reverting to my original name. It is comrades like you who didn’t know it was my name but those elder comrades have always referred to me as such. And I suggest that from today you quote me as Gen. David Sejusa.”
The Sejusa name is a Luganda rendering that is loosely translated as “I have no regrets;” it also has the same meaning in the Ankole rendition of Tinyefuza, which he said was a reason to take a new identity.
For a period of 10 years following the victory of the NRA in 1986, he served as a member of the National Resistance Army Council (NRAC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC). Between 1989 and 1992, he served as Minister of State for Defense. In 1993, he was appointed Presidential Adviser on Peace and Security, serving in that capacity until 1997. He was appointed Senior Presidential Adviser and Coordinator of Intelligence in 2005, a position he held until 2013
