Brig. Kankiriho burial set for tomorrow

Apr 10, 2013

The body of Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, the fallen commander of the UPDF Second Division, will be buried at his ancestral home in Rushere, Kiruhura district on Thursday.

By Taddeo Bwambale

The body of Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, the fallen commander of the UPDF Second Division, will be buried at his ancestral home in Rushere, Kiruhura district on Thursday.


A requiem service will be held at All Saints’ Church, Nakasero at 10:00am today, according to the UPDF chief political commissar, Col. Felix Kulayigye.

A decorated soldier, Kankiriho, 54, died on Monday at Nakasero Hospital.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Defence and the UPDF said he died of natural causes, and described his death as a big blow to the army.

“Brig Patrick Kankiriho was one of the senior officers, who were instrumental in the early days of the NRA struggle when few saw hope in the struggle,” read the statement.

Kankiriho joined the NRA on October 27, 1981. He was commissioned to the rank of Lieutenant in 1986 and rose through the ranks. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier on February 8, 2008, a rank he held till his death.

He attended numerous military courses in France, Tanzania and Uganda.

He served as overall commander of Operation Lightning Thunder that flushed the Joseph Kony-led Lord’s Resistance Army out of the Garamba jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The late Kankiriho is survived by his wife, Deborah Kyokunda and four children.

Kulayigye eulogised Kankiriho as a commander, a mobiliser, a man that exercised the true UPDF ideology of harmonious and respectful co-existence with the people.

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