The 280 commissioned officers included 187 professional cadets who began training in February 2026 and 87 Bachelor of Defence Studies cadets who started training on September 18th, 2023. Eleven of the newly commissioned officers are female. Six additional cadets trained abroad, including Officer Cadets Ruhamya Kainerugaba and Andrew Bakira, who attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom.

“Can you have a strong army and a strong and safe country without a strong economy? Can you have a strong defence force and a strong and safe country without cohesive politics? Finally, can you have a strong defence force and a strong and safe country without, in some cases, addressing the issue of geo-strategic location such as being landlocked?” President Museveni asked.

Upholding the party's position, Nsereko said Uganda cannot be governed by safe houses, citing Article 44 of the Constitution, which provides that freedom from torture is non-derogable, and Section 176 of the UPDF Act, which provides that all detention must be in gazetted places.

SFC enters this year's competition seeking to build on its strong performance in the inaugural edition, where it won two trophies and emerged the best in the Mastery (Showmanship) Drill category. The Internal Security Organisation (ISO) claimed the overall title.

Gen Muhoozi noted that the combined graduating class of 11,978 soldiers is the largest military cohort Uganda has produced since the early 1990s, when the UPDF trained South Africa’s Umkhonto we Sizwe (the African National Congress’ armed wing) and the Lesotho Defence Force.

"This milestone reflects our shared commitment to wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women who have sacrificed greatly in service to our nation," Kiwanuka said.

“We demand that the Executive Director of the Uganda Communication Commission should resign or cause a crisis meeting in government to ensure that the power that has been taken away from him is reinstated so that he can do his work without interference from the army,” Lulume said.

“We don’t know where exactly Lukwago is because his legal firm, led by Medad Ssegonna, tried to go to the Natete police station to report the case, but it refused. They proceeded to the CID offices, and the same thing happened. However, they decided to write to the CID headquarters about Lukwago's arrest and his incommunicado detention,” Lulume said.