By Ben Musanje
Lieutenant General (Rtd) Charles Otema Awany, the former Commander of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) Reserve Force, has described his decades-long military career as a journey defined by sacrifice, discipline and a deep commitment to seeing his people return home to their villages.
Otema, the elder brother of National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General Richard Todwong, officially retired from the UPDF on August 20, 2026, alongside 19 other senior generals, bringing to an end a military career that began in the aftermath of the 1979 fall of Idi Amin.
Four days later, on August 22, Otema returned to his ancestral home in Tanga village, Purongo Sub-county, Nwoya District, where Acholi elders gathered from early morning to welcome him back through Nyono-tonggweno, the traditional Acholi cleansing and reintegration ritual commonly known as “stepping on the egg.”
The retired general was stopped at the entrance to his home and asked to remove his shoes before proceeding with the ceremony, marking his formal cultural reintegration into the community after decades spent serving in the military and other public assignments.
For Otema, the homecoming carried a significance far beyond retirement.
“I’m going home when my people are not in the camp. I’m going home when my people are back in the village. I’m the happiest man,” he said in an interview.
A military career born out of tragedy
Otema says he never initially planned to join the army. His decision was shaped by the experience of growing up during the turbulent years of Idi Amin’s rule.
He recalled how his father was arrested during Amin’s regime and taken to Makindye, where the family feared he had been killed.
Otema said he and his siblings were still in school when they were told to return home, without being given an explanation. The family believed their father was dead.
But when they arrived home, they found him alive.
The experience, coupled with the subsequent political turmoil, eventually pushed Otema towards military service.
When the liberation forces entered Kampala in 1979, he decided to join them, reasoning that if others who had suffered under the previous regime could take up arms, he too could serve.
He joined the military in 1979 and was subsequently trained before being posted to Bombo.
His early years in uniform coincided with some of Uganda’s most turbulent periods, including fighting in the West Nile region and the conflicts that followed the fall of successive governments.
Surviving the Bombo battle
Otema recalled one of the defining moments of his early career when his unit at Bombo was overrun.
He said hundreds of soldiers had been trained together, but only a fraction survived the attack.
“We were overrun,” he recalled, saying that of roughly 700 soldiers, only about 200 survived.
The survivors regrouped before being deployed to other theatres of operation.
Otema subsequently served in West Nile, where he witnessed some of the darkest episodes of the conflict.
He specifically recalled the massacre at Ombaci on June 24, 1981, at the Ombaci Mission and St. Joseph’s College Ombaci near Arua in the West Nile region of Uganda, saying he was deeply disturbed by the killing of civilians by fellow soldiers.
According to Otema, he intervened to save civilians when a grenade was about to be used against them.
“I was so shocked,” he recalled, saying he rescued an elderly person and acted to prevent further loss of life.
He said the memory of the victims has remained with him throughout his career.
Returning to Northern Uganda
After developing his military profession and serving as a transport officer, Otema found himself once again at the centre of Uganda’s changing political and military landscape in the mid-1980s.
Following the fall of the government in 1986, he joined the National Resistance Army (NRA), which later became the UPDF.
One of his most significant assignments came when he was deployed to northern Uganda as NRA forces advanced into Gulu.
At the time, many civilians in the region feared that the advancing forces were coming to attack the Acholi population.
Otema said his ability to speak Acholi helped break through that fear.
“When I started speaking Acholi, then people said, ‘No, this one cannot be the Banyankole. This is an Acholi,’” he recalled.
He said he used his identity and language to reassure civilians that the forces had come to restore order rather than target the Acholi population.
His intervention, he said, encouraged some fighters to surrender and helped ease tensions during a difficult period.
The LRA war and Garamba operations
Otema’s military career continued through the insurgencies that affected northern Uganda for decades.
In 2002, while holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was posted back to northern Uganda and became the overall intelligence officer coordinating operations against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
He said he coordinated operations against the LRA until 2006, when government forces pushed the rebels out of much of northern Uganda.
His service later took him to Garamba and the wider Central African theatre, where he participated in operations against the LRA alongside senior officers including the current UPDF Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and the late General Aronda Nyakairima.
Otema also remembered his late colleague Brigadier Patrick Kankiriho.
He said he remained in the region pursuing LRA elements after some Ugandan forces had been withdrawn from Garamba.
By 2012, he had returned from the theatre and was subsequently appointed Chief of Logistic Engineering before later becoming Commander of the Reserve Force.
Pride in a disciplined retirement
Reflecting on his retirement, Otema said he was proud that his long career had ended peacefully.
He credited President Yoweri Museveni for what he described as the stability and discipline that have characterised the Ugandan armed forces over the past four decades.
He said he hoped the foundation built over the years would continue to support a peaceful and prosperous Uganda.
But his biggest satisfaction, he said, is that he is returning home at a time when his people are no longer living in camps.
“I’m going home when my people are back in the village,” he said.
For Otema, that return is both personal and historical.
He said his community knows that he contributed to the efforts that helped restore peace to northern Uganda, and that they were happy to see him return.
From commander to commercial farmer
Away from military life, Otema says he is looking forward to spending more time as a farmer and family man.
He described himself as a commercial farmer with cattle and crops including rice, cassava and maize.
His retirement, he said, will allow him to personally oversee his farms and enjoy life in his ancestral village.
“I’m a good farmer. I’m a family man. And I enjoy my life,” he said.
His return to Tanga village was therefore not simply a farewell to military service, but a return to the community whose history is intertwined with the conflicts he spent much of his career helping to resolve.
His message to young officers: discipline
For young soldiers still serving in the UPDF, Otema’s central message is simple: discipline.
“Discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline,” he said when asked about the most important lesson of his career.
He argued that military service should not be viewed primarily as a route to quick wealth, warning officers against corruption, theft and misuse of military resources.
According to Otema, a disciplined career ultimately provides a more rewarding exit from service.
He said soldiers should always remember why they wear the uniform: to serve and protect the people.
“You are put in the army, in the uniform, because of the people,” he said.
As he steps away from active military service after more than four decades, Otema says his greatest reward is not simply the rank he attained, but the opportunity to return home to a peaceful community.
And as Acholi elders welcomed him through Nyono-tonggweno, the retired commander appeared to be embracing a new chapter — one that takes him from the battlefield and command structures back to his ancestral village, family and farms.
For a man whose military journey began amid war, political upheaval and uncertainty, the return home represents what he considers his happiest ending: going home when his people are back in the village. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
