Major General Kasirye Ggwanga died on Tuesday morning at Nakasero Hospital where he was admitted a week ago.
Rtd. Major General Kasirye Ggwanga passed away on Tuesday morning at Nakasero Hospital where he was admitted a week ago. A few hours after his passing on colleagues and members of the general public have hailed the fallen General.
Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba the senior Presidential Advisor on special operations said the fallen General was a great soldier that the UPDF will always miss him.
“It is very sad to hear about the passing away of a great soldier and a good friend, General Kasirye Ggwanga. We spoke weeks ago and he was in a jolly mood. Rest in peace General,” Lt. Gen. Muhoozi posted on twitter.
“We have lost our dear Maj. Gen. Kasirye Ggwanga it’s an unfortunate incident,” the deputy UPDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki said.
He said arrangements are currently underway to connect with the family so that a deceased receives a decent burial.
Lt. Col. Juma Seiko said that Ggwanga was his friend for over 40 years and described him as a good man.
“He has been a good leader, man of people, a fearless and good commander. He has been one of my mentors and the country has lost a great man,” Seiko said.
Seiko said with teary eyes that the Late General advised him to join farming and to invest in the venture of planting trees.
“He was my adviser in farming even a month ago he advised me to plant trees to make money unfortunately he has not got time to stay around. I will describe him as a hero and a role model of many,” Seiko added.
The Minister of National Guidance, Judith Nabakooba said that the people of Mubende region have lost a great leader towards the development of the region.
“He was great army general and fighter but also a patriot that the people of Mubende have lost. We shall miss him greatly,” the Minister said.
General Kasirye Ggwanga has been a man in the news throughout his career with various controversies surrounding his life.
In the mid-1990s while serving in the National Resistance Army (NRA) later UPDF, Ggwanga was involved in various shooting controversies. While hunting for a rebel called Maj. Kikomeko Itongwa Kasirye Ggwanga was shot in unclear circumstances while inside his car at night and spent weeks in hospital.
He once shot dead robbers who had come to steal his car at Waakaliga. The no-nonsense general slapped a traffic officer and he also once shot in the air to break up a Pentecostal prayer crusade claiming that they were making noise for him.
The fallen general once set dogs to a man claiming that he was acting like a thief. When his children accused a musician called Catherine Kusasira and his employees of indiscipline the General intervened and shot the tyres of Kusasira’s vehicle and nothing was done about it.
Kasirye Ggwanga shot and burned down a grader that he found on his daughter’s land and he said the grader belonged to land grabbers. Ggwanga added salt in the wound when he said he was looking for the owners of the grader to kill them while saying all land grabbers should be killed.
Some say Kasirye was too senior to be embarrassed that’s why he got away with all incidents. Interestingly the police said there no complaints about the incidents.
The fallen Major General Kasirye Ggwanga will be buried on Friday according to the UPDF Spokesperson Brig. Richard Karemire.
