Karamoja RDC’s Decry Low Turn Of Applicants For The UPDF Recruitment Exercise

By Joshua Imalingat

The Resident District Commissioners in North Karamoja have decried the low turn of applicants in the ongoing Uganda Peoples Defence Forces-UPDF recruitment exercise.

On the 20^th of May this year, the ministry of defence and veteran affairs announced a general recruitment exercise of 9, 627 regular forces in to the infantry forces. The actual recruitment exercise will commence on 1^st July 2024 and end on 14^th July 2024.

However, the Resident District Commissioners in the region have told Etoil A Karamoja that the turn up is disappointingly low.

Ambrose Onoria the Kotido district RDC expressed frustration at the low turn up of applicants saying by Thursday evening, his recruitment team had only received 20 applications.

He attributed the low turn to lack of interest from the local communities in joining forces, and failure by applicants to meet the recruitment requirements. He however, rallied all the eligible candidates to embrace the exercise.

Captain Chris Mike Okiria the Kaabong district RDC says they have so far received only 30 applications. He too attributes this to lack of requisite academic documents while others are beyond the required age bracket.

James Shilaku the Abim district RDC is rooting for affirmative action especially on the age, saying there is need for UPDF to make an exception for the Karamoja region on the age bracket requirement. He observed that many young people are expressing interest in joining the force but they are being locked out by requirements.

In the new arrangement, applicants are required for the first time to fill out their applications and hand them over to the RDCs who in turn hand them over to the UPDF teams to select and interview the best candidates for eventual training.