Mega Fm & Agency
Retired Lt Gen Charles Otema Awany says he considers himself fortunate to have returned home alive after 47 years of military service through some of the most turbulent periods in Uganda’s history.
Speaking to Mega FM after his retirement from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Otema said many of the officers and friends he joined the army with are no longer alive.
Otema was among 19 senior generals who retired from the UPDF last week, bringing to an end a military career that began in 1979.
On Saturday, he returned to his ancestral home in Tangi Cell, Purongo Town Council in Nwoya District, where he was welcomed by clan elders and underwent traditional cleansing rites.
The ceremony included stepping on an egg and stepping over a Layibi tree log, practices traditionally associated with cleansing and welcoming home people who have spent long periods away.
Otema described the ceremony as more than a cultural ritual, saying it represented an honour from the elders who sent him into the army decades ago.
Otema joined the army on May 6, 1979, as a young man
He said his decision was influenced in part by the trauma he experienced after his father was harassed and arrested by a family whose sons had been involved in the military before and after the overthrow of former President Idi Amin.
