Those tasked with making a national military museum a reality in Uganda appear to be committed with last year’s visit to South Africa followed up with another, this time to Algeria.
A UPDF (Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces) statement has it the November week-long visit to the Algerian Military Museum (Musem de l’Armee) in the capital, Algiers, was to “understand” and gain insight into “best practices”. These, along with insights from the South African visit in August 2022, will be “applied” to the yet-to-become reality Uganda National Military Museum at Katonga in Mpigi district.
The Algerian mission saw the UPDF delegation, led by Chief Political Commissar, Major General Henry Masiko, and included Major General Moses Rwakitarate; Brigadier Sam Omara. UPDF Defence Advisor to Algeria and UPDF National Military Museum Co-ordinator, referred to only as Major Maruti, study and benchmark good museum practices.
Reflecting on the South African visit 16 months earlier, Masiko told his SAAF (SA Air Force) Museum hosts the country was ““chosen as the ideal destination due to the richness of the country’s military, historical and existing museum infrastructure”. South African experience and expertise will allow the UPDF to “draw lessons which will determine the establishment of a national military museum in Uganda”.
As with South Africa, where a lack of defence funding permeates most levels of activity in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the “long journey” to establish a Ugandan national military museum started with the placement of a foundation stone in December 2020. “The project,” the UPDF statement notes, “has been slow due to funding”.
