FORMER Army Commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini was on Tuesday killed in a domestic brawl with his concubine. The concubine, Lydia Draru, in an extra-judicial statement, confessed to hitting the general with an iron bar on the head in self-defence.

As the country mourns, the best reward to this gallant soldier should be to use his tragic death as a lesson to improve the institution he served.

While death is inevitable and unpredictable, the circumstances under which Kazini died raises a lot of questions on the ability of the army institution to enforce discipline amongst its officers.

The army has a strict code of conduct which if enforced, perhaps Kazini would have been saved, or would have died in a more dignified manner.

Soldiers are human and as such, have problems of a social nature that can lead to great stress and frustration if not addressed. For instance, what mechanism does the UPDF have to help soldiers with domestic troubles; soldiers with drinking problems or those who are womanisers?

While the UPDF is the people’s army and the policy of soldiers mixing freely with civilians is good, as a specialised profession, there should be mechanisms to ensure they do not go beyond certain limits. Perhaps it is high time army shops were re-established.

That said, Kazini, like many UPDF officers, was friendly and mixed freely with civilians. As a human being he had his weaknesses, but these should not overshadow the enormous contribution he made in restoring peace and security to this country.

From the time he joined the then National Resistance Army in 1984, Kazini spent almost the entire 29 years of his army career in the battlefields, not in air-conditioned offices; from battling the Allied Democratic Forces in the Rwenzoris to the Lord’s Resistance Army in the north.

As we send our sincere condolences to the bereaved family, Kazini is a great loss to the country and deserves a heroic send-off.