Col Chris Magezi named acting UPDF spokesperson

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 MILITARY 

Col Chris Magezi has been appointed the acting spokesperson of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

He was appointed by the UPDF Chief of Joint Staff, Maj. Gen. Jack Bakasumba, to run the office of the defence public information (DDPIO) on an interim basis.

This is according to a statement published by the UPDF on social media platform X on Thursday (March 13).

“Col. Magezi is also the military assistant to the Chief of Defence Forces [of the] UPDF, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. The substantive DDPIO, Major General Felix Kulayigye, is on leave and is expected to be back in office after one month (30 days),” said the statement.

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Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayige is said to be on leave

Who is Magezi?

Born in 1978, Magezi graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism and Communication from Makerere University in 2015.

He did his basic military course at Singo Military Training School in Kapeeka sub-county, Nakaseke district in 1999.

He later went to Kenya for a brief course in Peace and Support Operations before returning to Uganda to attend the Officer Cadet Course at the School of Infantry as it was then known in Jinja from 2000 to 2001.

Magezi, who graduated in August 2001 as 2nd Lieutenant, also did a Company Commanders Course at Junior Command and Staff College in Jinja in 2009.

In 2018, he did the Junior Command and Staff Course in Jinja before going to the UK for his specialised course.

He previously served as the Special Forces Command spokesperson and deputy UPDF spokesperson deputising the then Brig Kulayigye.

He also served as the UPDF Contingent spokesperson under the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia program between July 2009 and July 2011.

Magezi was also the UPDF spokesperson during the army’s operation code-named Lightning Thunder against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in north-eastern DR Congo.

He also served as the spokesperson of the Ugandan government delegation during the Juba peace talks between the LRA and also the army spokesperson in Northern Uganda during the LRA insurgency.

Between 2003 and 2007, Magezi served as army spokesperson for the Second Infantry Division in Mbarara City and the Fifth Infantry Division in Pader district.

He was a Platoon and later a company Commander of the 23rd Infantry Battalion headquartered in Kitgum district during the UPDF offensive dubbed Operation Iron Fist in Gulu from 2001 to 2003.

He became the first spokesperson of the newly formed 5th Infantry Division based in Pader under the command of the then Col John Mugume in 2004.

In July 2021, he did a one-year Advanced Command and Staff Course at the UK’s Joint Services Command and Staff College, Defence Academy.

He also won a Master of Arts Defence Studies from King’s College London that year.