The Commander In Chief of the armed forces, president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni dropped his son, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as the UPDF Commander of land forces and replaced him with Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga.
Muhanga was further promoted to Lieutenant General, the second highest rank in the UPDF.
Gen Muhanga has been the Commander of Operation Shujaa against the ADF in DR Congo.
Who is Gen Muhanga?
Muhanga hails from Fort Portal, Kabarole District, Western Uganda, and is the older brother of the veteran journalist, Andrew Mwenda, and Junior Health Minister, Margaret Muhanga. His father is Mzee Phillip Muhanga of Fort Portal.
He attended Duhaga Secondary School in Hoima district and later Mpanga Day School, in Fort Portal. In 1985, while still in S5, he joined Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA).
Muhanga attended the Cadet Officers Course at the Uganda Military Academy in 1988. At that time, the school was located at Quaddafi Barracks in Jinja, Eastern Uganda, before it was relocated to Kabamba, in Mubende District.
He served in the military police unit based in Kasese. He served in the Presidential Protection Unit at the rank of private from 1986 until 1988.
Following the Junior Cadet Officer Course, he served in the office of the Chief of Combat Operations, at the rank of second lieutenant. He was transferred to the Directorate of Military Intelligence in 1990, serving there until 1993.
From 1993 until 1997, he served as the Intelligence Officer, attached to the UPDF barracks in Mubende. He was assigned to the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce, at the rank of Captain.
He was promoted through Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel and was posted to Mogadishu, Somalia, as part of the UPDF contingent to AMISOM.
While there, he commanded Uganda’s “Battle Group Eight” and concurrently served as the deputy commander for the Ugandan contingent in Somalia.
After his tour of duty, he served as the Chief of the Military Police in the UPDF, until January 2014. In January 2014, Colonel Kayanja Muhanga was appointed Commander of the UPDF Operations in South Sudan. In February 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier.
Ahead of the 2021 general elections, he was appointed the head of joint operations within Kampala Metropolitan.