Gen Birungi was born in 1973 in Ngoma, Nakaseke District. He attended Ibanda Senior Secondary School for his O-Level and Nyakasura School for A-Level. Maj Gen James Birungi then joined Makerere University Business School, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration. In 1998, he joined the army as a regular officer before being selected to attend the cadet officer’s course in India a year later. When he returned to Uganda in 2000, Gen Birungi undertook a platoon commander course where he emerged as the best. He was then appointed platoon commander of the Presidential Protection Unit.
Other military courses he studied include: Basic Military Training in Kasenyi, Wakiso District; Anti-tank course in Masaka; Motorised Infantry Commanders’ course; Tank Crew course in Kalama; Company Commanders course in Kalama; Tank Battalion Commanders course in Kalama; Junior Commanders course in Jinja; Senior Command and Staff Course at Uganda Senior Command and Staff College in Kimaka.
Gen Birungi has also held several top positions in the army, including commander Special Force Command (SFC), Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI), since renamed Defense Intelligence and Security (DIS), Mountain Division Commander and Commander Operation Shuja, Company Intelligence Officer in the Armoured Brigade in Masaka, Commanding Officer of the Armoured Warfare Training School at Karama off the Mubende-Fort Portal Highway, Company Commander of Tanks in the Presidential Protection Unit, now Special Forces Command (SFC), Operation Training Officer in the Presidential Guard Brigade, Commanding Officer of Armoured Brigade, and Commanding Officer, Tank Battalion in disarmament in Karamoja.
Others are: Commanding Officer of the battalion to Somalia, Commander of two tank battle groups, Brigade Operations and Training Officer of the Presidential Guard Brigade, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and head of the South Sudan Security Monitoring Mechanism. Gen Birungi is, however, clocking nearly nine months in detention without trial. He was arrested in mid-2025 on allegations of orchestrating fake terror bombings in Kampala, incidents in which two women were killed. The DIS conducts intelligence operations for the military and often collaborates with the Uganda Police Force (UPF) to combat violent crimes such as terrorism, armed robberies, abductions, kidnappings, and murders.
Maj Gen Richard Otto
Maj Gen Otto is a senior military Officer in the UPDF. Since April 16, 2025, he has served as the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security. Previously, he served as Commander of the UPDF Mountain Division and also Commander of Operation Shujja, a joint undertaking by the UPDF and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) to neutralise the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Before his UPDF Mountain Division Assignment, Gen Otto was the chairman of the South Sudan Peace Mechanism, an IGAD-sponsored observer mechanism, to ensure adherence to the peace treaties by the protagonists. Previously, he was the commanding officer of the 3rd Division of the UPDF based in Moroto.
Maj Gen Abel Kandiho
He worked at the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) for the bigger part of his military career. He started as an officer and later headed it. Gen Kandiho also worked at Uganda’s High Commission in Kigali, Rwanda, in the early 2000s. Previously, before 2014, he served as the Commander of Makindye Military Barracks, the headquarters of UPDF Military Police. On May 30, 2014, he was replaced in the position by Col Emmanuel Kanyesigye. Kandiho stayed as the deputy Commander.
In December 2021, the United States placed sanctions on Gen Kandiho over alleged involvement in the cases of human rights violations, which he denied. In 2022, he was appointed Chief of Joint Staff in the Uganda Police Force, replacing then Maj General Jack Bakasumba. From the police, Gen Kandiho was appointed Special Presidential Advisor on Classified Operations, a position he held until he was put on the list of generals who are set to retire in August 2026.
About besigye case
Dr Kizza Besigye, a former personal doctor to President Museveni and one of his longest-serving political challengers, has unsuccessfully contested the presidency four times. In 2024, Dr Besigye was abducted from Nairobi, Kenya alongside his aide Obeid Lutale. The duo is jointly charged with treason. Last year, the State added Capt Dennis Oola as one of the accused persons.
Prosecutors allege that the trio, together with others still at large, between 2023 and November 2024, in various countries, including Geneva, Athens, Nairobi, and Uganda, plotted to overthrow the government by force of arms. The charges stem from their arrest in November 2024 in Nairobi, where Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale had travelled to attend a book launch hosted by Kenya’s former Justice minister Martha Karua.
The accused have since denied the charges.
The treason case is currently at the trial stage. During the prelimary hearing, State prosecutors unsucessfully sought court permission to conceal the identities of six out of the 10 witnesses lined up to testify against the accused. Defence lawyers for Dr Besigye subjected Chief State Attorney Joseph Kyomuhendo to a rigorous cross-examination, exposing sharp disagreements over the legal basis for concealing prosecution witnesses in the ongoing treason trial.
Mr Kyomuhendo, the head of the Anti-Trafficking Department in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), defended the State’s application to shield the identities of key witnesses. The matter is being heard in the Kampala High Court by Justice Emmanuel Baguma.