The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) yesterday rolled out a roadmap for the recruitment of over 9,627 youth into its regular forces.
Accompanied by Brig. Gen. Alex Olupot, the head of the joint staff training and doctrine; [WIN spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulaigye told reporters at the defence ministry headquarters at Mbuya that applications should be submitted by June 2.
Kulaigye said this is part of the usual annual recruitments into defence forces on the recommendation of the human resource manager, who assesses the available need in the human resource and recommends recruitment.
“Last year, we recruited the local defence personnel and many people have been asking when we are recruiting again.
“Aspiring candidates applying to join the regular force will get recommendations from LC1, LC2, LC3, GISO (Ggombolola internal security officer) and DISO (district internal security officer).
“Thereafter, they will submit their application forms to the office of the resident district commissioner (RDC), where they will be registered awaiting collection by the UPDF teams that will submit them to the office of the joint staff human resource, who will create a shortlist,” Kulaigye said.
According to Kulaigye, the list of successful applicants will be displayed on the district/city notice boards informing the shortlisted applicants to appear at designated recruitment centres for the final interviews.
“The quotas for potential recruits will be computed by proportion of the population of each city/district of Uganda based on updated population as of June 25, 2023 by UBOS. The recruitment will be conducted throughout the entire country, covering the 135 districts and 11 cities,” he said.
Kulaigye said the exercise will last 56 days.
“The illegible candidates must be citizens of Uganda, in possession of the original national identity card (ID).
“They must be fit and ready to undergo medical and body fitness tests, must be male and female adults between the 18-22 years, with formal education of strictly Senior four and these must have completed between 2020-2023.
“They must have passed English and mathematics,” Kulaigye said. He added that aspirants must be residents of the area, disciplined and with no criminal record.
ROADMAP
According to Olupot, yesterday’s press briefing marked the beginning of the recruitment process and will be followed by an official advertisement of the exercise in the media.
“The adverts to attract potential candidates will run for 14 days. Applications should be readily submitted to the office of the RDC from May 27 to June 2,” he said.
After June 2, Olupot said teams will be dispatched from the UPDF to collect the application forms from the offices of the RDCs to the defence headquarters for scrutiny and subsequent shortlisting on June 3-6.
“Once the applications have reached us at the headquarters, we shall have to confirm receipt of the applications and sort them using our own criteria.
“The sorting will lead us to developing a shortlist of the applicants on June 5-15. Once the shortlist is out, we shall send it to every district for display at the offices of the RDCs,” he said.
Olupot indicated that the display of the shortlist will happen on June 17-23, adding that those on the shortlist will be the ones to attend the next level of interviews, which will begin on July 1, at various centres.
