📸 Muntu fires shots at gun politics in Bukomero

KIBOGA - Kiboga District Woman Member of Parliament (MP) Christine Kaaya Nakimwero (NUP) and Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) flag-bearer Maj. Gen. (rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu, on Saturday, October 18, 2025, met on the campaign trail with a washing bay near Bukomero Police station in Bukomero town council, playing host.

Kaaya, who was on her way elsewhere, spared minutes to exchange pleasantries with the former commander before the rally.

In her brief comments, Kaaya said her party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) and Muntu's ANT share the same message of peaceful change, before boarding her car to proceed onward. 

"We had small detaches in Ssingo, Bulemeezi. In some instances, we had 10 combatants with three guns. And yet, UNLA we were fighting was all over here in Kiboga, Lwamatta, Bukomero. Others were at Kakinga and Kapeeka," Muntu said. (All Photos by Stuart Yiga)

In a rare show of camaraderie, Muntu, in the recent past, has endorsed several NUP and Katonga-based People's Front for Freedom party aspirants where it has not fielded one.

Return to the war theatre

Bukomero was one of the flashpoints during the National Resistance Army (NRA) and Government forces between 1980-86.

Among the rebels was a 23-year-old Muntu who had joined the fray after completing studies at the prestigious Makerere University. 

After capturing power, the born of Kitunga in Ntungamo would go on to head the Directorate of Military Intelligence, where he was deputised by incumbent Rwanda President Paul Kagame. 

Shortly after returning from a military course in Russia, Muntu was appointed as 5th Division commander in Lira. 

Between 1989 and 1998, he served as Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).

Returning to the former war theatre on October 18, 2025, Muntu, who is standing for the second consecutive time, slammed the incumbent Government for idolising the gun, a mindset, he said, started taking root after they took state power on January 26, 2025. 
A weapon, he says, they have 'unfortunately used to suppress the population'.

However, looking back, he pointed out that the success of the bush war was largely due to the popular support they enjoyed from the masses. Adding that hadn't people hid, fed them and shared intelligence with them, they would have been captured like grasshoppers. 

"You would find out camps three kilometres from the camps of the national army. But it was hard for them to know of our presence, and yet there were residents," Muntu said. 
Something he said was outrightly clear at the beginning of the protracted struggle when the rebels had fewer guns. 

"We had small detaches in Ssingo, Bulemeezi. In some instances, we had 10 combatants with three guns. And yet, UNLA we were fighting was all over here in Kiboga, Lwamatta, Bukomero. Others were at Kakinga and Kapeeka," Muntu said. 

However, eventually, he told residents that they kept on growing their arms cache by raiding a host of army installations.

To mention but a few, these included Masindi and Hoima. 

"Then, later, the late Tanzanian president [Julius] Nyerere gave us 7,000 guns, which we used to capture Kampala," he said.

After the address, he headed straight to Lwamatta town council, where he implored voters to vote for him owing to his proven track record and principles.

"In 1983, I was in Mondlane unit in Makulubita listening to the radio that Obote had returned my father's body. I was in the bush fighting his Government," he stated. 

The ANT presidential candidate was in Kiboga municipality, canvassing for votes.

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