The forces Deputy mouth piece Col. Chris Magezi warn aspiring candidates on presenting forged academic credentials
By George Bukenya
In an effort to bolster professionalism within the armed forces, Uganda People’s Defence Forces has embarked on a massive recruitment exercise intended to adequately stock the different departments with professional forces.
This was officially announced by the forces deputy spokesperson Col. Chris Magezi at Uganda Media Centre on 5th Friday, 2026.
Speaking to reporters, Col. Magezi said that there’s a man power gap especially in areas of health, education, Engineering, and natural and social sciences but he declined to reveal the actual numbers need at the moment, well as one of the online publications indicated a total of 10,200.
“ We want to continue recruiting professional individual in the various fields within UPDF as an effort to enhance professionalism.’’ “ For instance we have a fully fledged National Referral Hospital at Mbuya which lacks professional health personnel of different specializations, we have also the Engineering Bridged that requires highly competent engineers,’’ Col. Magezi said.
“ Following Constitutional Court ruling that the man power handling cases in the Court Marshal should be advocates of High Court of Uganda, UPDF need to recruit qualified lawyers with a minimum experience of at least five years, we have also schools at both levels which require qualified teachers,’’ he explained.
On the irregularities such as corruption for instance ferrying people from their mother regions to another’s, and soliciting for some money from applicants, using forged academic credentials, Col. Magezi strongly warned and said such errant individuals will be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law.
“ We try to keep within the margins of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda while carrying out the recruitment exercise regarding the District quotas and recruiting across all regions, but some regions fail to raise their requires numbers.’’ He explained.
He revealed to the media that recruitment commences on 10th June, 2026 with applicants submitting in their applications via online using www.updf.go.ug and this will end on 14th July, 2026.
The physical recruitment will begin on 20th July and end on 1st August, 2026 within the different Cities and Districts, according to Col. Magezi, the district quotas will be informed by the 2024 Uganda Bureau of Statistics census report.
Apart from the professions, UPDF is also seeking to recruit regular forces between the ages of 18-24 years with who have UCE (O’Level) or UACE (A’Level) obtained in 2024 and 2025 with a strong bias towards science subjects and such individuals must be medically and physically fit, law-abiding and having a completely clean criminal track record.
The aspiring candidates must also obtain formal recommendation and signed letters from LCI, LCII and LCIII Chairpersons, the GISO or DISO, and the Residence District or City Commissioner (RDC or RCC).
Aspiring candidates must get formal recommendations and signed letters from their LCI, LCII, & LCIII Chairpersons, the GISO or DISO, and the Resident District Commissioner (RDC).
Although men turn up in huge numbers, UPDF is still facing a challenge of getting the requires numbers on the females side as explained by the forces Deputy Spokes Person.
For More details one can visit the UPDF website for purposes of clarity on the professionals needed.