By Kabuye Ronald
Maj. Gen. Paul Lokech alias The Lion of Mogadishu who has been appointed the new deputy Inspector General of Police IGP is a big pillar in Uganda’s security who has held key positions in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
In November 2019, Maj. Gen. Lokech was appointed on a special assignment to monitor on behalf of the guarantors of the South Sudan peace process, the assembling, screening, demobilization and integration of the armed forces of South Sudan a position he has held until his appointment today.
Before that, he served as Chief of Staff of the UPDF Air Force, for a period of five months, from 11 July 2019, until 11 December 2019.
Prior to that, from December 2018 until July 2019, he was Commandant of Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability Centre (URDCC), in Jinja, in the Eastern Region of Uganda.He was appointed to that position in December 2018.
His military career includes service in various leadership capacities, including two tours as the Commander of the Uganda contingent to Somalia, as part of the AMISOM peace-keeping force. The first tour was between 2011 and 2012 where he named “the Lion of Mogadishu” . His second Somalia rotation was from 2017 until 2018. During his first tour, Lokech commanded Battle Groups Eight and Nine, responsible for ejecting Al-Shabaab militants from Mogadishu in 2011.
Before his second tour in Somalia, he was the Commanding Officer of the Second UPDF Division, based at Makenke Barracks, in Mbarara, in the Western Region of Uganda.[ He has previously served as the Military Attaché at Uganda’s Embassy to Russia, based in Moscow.
He has also served as part of Uganda’s peace-keeping forces in South Sudan. He was part of Operation Safe Haven (OSH), a UPDF operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo intended to neutralize the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
In February 2019, President Yoweri Museveni promoted over 2,000 men and women to various ranks in the UPDF. As part of that exercise, Paul Lokech was promoted from Brigadier to Major General. His name was inadvertently left off the original list, and the Uganda military apologized for that omission.
