There is a misperception created that the late Major General James Kazini was mistreated by President Museveni and the system during the evening of his life. Though a national hero, evidence suggests that Kazini committed grave offences against the state of Uganda.

This involved embezzlement of public funds and the secret recruitment and deployment of personnel into UPDF. Against this background, I argue that he was a very lucky man, all due to Museveni's magnanimity.

Ordinarily, he should have faced the stiffest of punishments.

Kazini's case reminds me of Cuba's equally celebrated General Arnaldo T. Ochoa. He had joined the Castro brothers in 1957 while fighting against the Batista regime, and had served as member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party since the mid 1960s.

Ochoa subsequently headed Cuba's Internationalist Force which Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist Party sent to Angola to counter apartheid's mighty, marauding South African Defence Force. The SADF mission was to collapse Frontline regimes that supported the anti-apartheid armed struggle.

Cuba's internationalist Southern African contribution is best associated with the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola, where Cuban, Angolan and South Africa's Umkonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) troops, after tough combat, besieged the attacking SADF. Gen. Ochoa was the hero of this military achievement. This conditioned Pretoria to negotiate, agree to vacate Angola, and grant Namibia independence.

Concurrently, in 1989, Cuban Military Intelligence informed Commandate Castro and the Cuban leadership, that apart from war hero Ochoa's battlefield exploits, he had also been involved in corruption, including the smuggling of Angolan diamonds and ivory, the dishonest use of resources, and drug trafficking. Castro summarily and unceremoniously summoned Ochoa to Havana where he was thoroughly disgraced, court-martialed and one early morning shot by firing squad. All despite pleas for clemency, including one from Pope John Paul II!

Not so in Kazini's case. For, till his tragic death, he lived a fairly dignified life and his burial was graced by his Commander-in-Chief, the high and mighty and Ugandan and regional military representation, where he received the fullest military honours!

Instrumentally, four other of Kazini's contemporaries had previously been army commanders of the glorious NRA/UPDF. These were Generals: Elly Tumwine, Caleb Akandwanaho, Mugisha Muntu, and Jeje Odong. All have managed to move on, some remaining in service and others joining politics. The President has the constitutional and democratic mandate to commission or omit any person from appointive office, including that of Army Commander.

That he has managed to conduct this constitutional prerogative smoothly is no mean achievement, in our circumstances. An example is the one fateful evening in 1980 when then President Godfrey Binaisa 'promoted' Uganda National Liberation Army Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. David Oyite Ojok, to become ambassador to Algeria.

By next morning, the hunter had become the hunted; Binaisa was tightly locked up under house arrest in Entebbe, and Milton Obote's Kikosi Maluum, commanded by Paulo Muwanga and Ojok challenged his authority and overthrew his UNLF regime!

Earlier in the 1960s, Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, despite the incriminating evidence at his disposal, feared and failed to replace the Frankenstein monster he had created in the name of Idi Amin, whom he had promoted, without merit, from a mere Sergeant, in 1962, to Major General and Army Commander in less than eight years! The rest, as is said, became Uganda's disastrous history.

Kazini was a gifted military commander and tactician. His successful counter insurgency operations against the Lord's Resistance Army and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) make him one of the best military counter insurgency commanders of all time, worldwide.

Let me also correct an erroneous impression that refers to Gen. Kazini and his colleagues such as Col. Sula Semakula (RIP) as having been "semi-literate". Unfortunately, such description never defines what is meant by the term "semi-literate". Could this be anybody who never graduated from Makerere University?

Kazini attended and excelled in some of the best military academies available. He was one of the best trained military officers in Uganda and indeed, the world. He attended Ghana's prestigious Senior Staff College and subsequently Nigeria and Africa's flagship, War College.

Due to his academic brilliance, hard work and eagerness to learn, he not only qualified but also found time to concurrently get admitted as a Master's student at the well known University of Ibadan, in Strategic Studies where he once again excelled. It's next to impossible to be a commander at national, division, brigade or battalion levels in the UPDF when you are objectively "semi-literate."