If there’s any UPDF officer who has cultivated a tough-man, aggressive public image and continues to propagate it further, it is Lt. Gen. Peter Elwelu. Speaking at the Bombo Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) barracks yesterday, Elwelu put on this no-nonsense face as he assured Ugandans that the UPDF will crash whoever tries to cause chaos in the country.
“So many people want to destabilize this country; many envy the development we have achieved. So many are not happy with the transformation this country is going through. But we are prepared for them,” Elwelu said.
“We must defend the peace we have in this country jealously. Many people sacrificed to make it country better as it is now,” the Lieutenant General added.
Elwelu’s tough-man image was especially cemented two and a half years ago when he commanded the UPDF troops that overran the palace of Rwenzururu king Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere in Kasese, as government accused the Omusinga of harbouring rebel elements and fanning the violence that was raging in the Rwenzori region then.