Gen Elly Tumwine will be buried at his ancestral home in Mukuru Village, Rwemikoma Sub-county, Kazo County, Kazo District on Tuesday according to a program released by the UPDF and the Ministry of ICT .
According to the official program signed by ICT Minister Dr. Chris Bayromunsi and Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye of the UPDF there will be an official vigil at the home of the fallen war general at his home in Nakesero tomorrow .
On Monday there will be a requiem service at Kololo Independence grounds starting at 10 am and President Yoweri Museveni is expected to attend .
The general public will also be allowed to attend the Kololo requiem service but while following the Covid 19 SOPs. There after the body will be transported to Kazo where burial will take place on Tuesday preceded by a funeral service .
Gen Tumwine ‘s body was flown in yesterday evening from Nairobi Kenya and it arrived at Entebbe International Airport in private chartered plane.
A combative National Resistance Army (NRA) Luweero bush war veteran -one of the 27 armed men that attacked Kabamba barracks on their way to liberate Uganda – Gen Elly Tumwine has died at the age of 68.Tumwine died from Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was being treated for cancer -related illness.
Tumwine was one of the 42 people armed with 27 guns who attacked Kabamba barracks that led to the NRA protracted f-five year bush war in the jungles of Luweero triangle eventually capturing power in 1986 . Tumwine fired the first bullet to launch the armed struggle and lost one of his eyes in the war.
Just like many of his colleagues Tumwine had abandoned his teaching profession in 1978 to join the liberation struggle led by President Yoweri Museveni under the FRONASA forces at the time .
“We had earlier got in touch and discussed with Museveni who had taught me in primary school that if the 1980 elections were rigged, we could go to the bush as the only way out,”Tumwine told the media in one of his many interviews about his participation in the war .
in January 1986 when they had taken over government Gen. Tumwine was one of the six original members of the NRA High Command which later transformed into the current national army -the UPDF High Command. He went on to serve as member of Parliament representing the army for over 30 years .
