Lt Gen (Rtd) Charles Otema Awany has described his 47 years in the army as turbulent, marked by a mix of regrets and successes due to the nature of military work.
The decorated officer noted that the army should be about discipline, respect, and professionalism, and about defending the people from oppression, not causing them pain and suffering.
”This thing of saying I am a soldier, I am very strong, do you know me, I am very bad, that no longer works. I want to tell the children who are still in the army. The gun you have carried, the uniform you have carried, is because of the strength of the people, not you alone. The people are the ones with power over you; work, defend; what oppresses the people is what you must defend, not you causing pain to the people.”
Adding that, ”Those (army officers) who cause suffering to the people, that I am very bad, I am untouchable, they are all not there, those we joined together, they are all not there. People must live respectfully; the most important thing is, you are for the people, to protect their lives and their property.”
Lt Gen Otema has also apologised to the community of Acholi and Ugandans, saying that he could have erred during his service, but where not his making but rather for the interest of the public.
”To my people of Acholi and Ugandans, if I did anything wrong as a person, I apologise. Whatever I did was not in my interest but for the public, Lt Gen (Rtd) Charles Otema Awany, former commander of the Reserve Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Force, said on Wednesday evening.”
He shared that he regretted his time in the army, saying; ”Well, like the work of an army officer, the military work, you all know very well, that you go to take your people, ours was to get people who Kony (LRA rebel leader) had abducted, now in that in the military work if maybe something happened that didn`t make people happy. As your child, there was nothing I did to harm anyone or to take away someone’s life. All of them, I was working for the people, so if it happened in a manner that didn’t amuse some people, then I apologise; it happened because of the nature of my work (military).”
He was appearing at a live broadcast on Radio Rupiny on Wednesday evening.
His response was triggered by the two-decade public concerns around the alleged shooting of Peter Oloya alias Yumbe, an inmate at Gulu Main Prison on September, 16, 2002.
Lt Gen Otema (Rtd), who is among the few top army officers the Acholi Sub-region has produced, regretted some of his actions, but denied allegations that he masterminded the shooting to death of Peter Oloya alias Yumbe during the military raid on Gulu Main Prison in Gulu City, then Gulu District, which also led to the abduction of 21 prisoners on September 16, 2002.
Oloya, whose death remains a cold case to date, was in prison alongside 20 others on charges ranging from murder to treason. That fateful Friday was a visitation day in Gulu Prison.
Gen Otema recounts that anything that happened that fateful day was for the good of the people, noting that it was intended to save extensive aggression and damage that would have been caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, who targeted the prison and wanted to rescue the inmates.
However, responding to the issue, Lt Gen Otema said; ”Well, you know, there is one thing which I should tell people, the death that would have happened was going to be more than the 3,4 or 5 people that were picked from the prisons, because what (intelligence) we had received, we got report which was coming that the LRA (Lord`s Resistance Army) rebel group wanted to come and attack prisons, now we sat and weighed that if you see that if they come and attack prisons, then it means it must be exchange of fire, or they should also fire guns.” He narrated.
”We eventually, we discovered that fighting (crossfire) in the centre of the town, many people would lose their lives, the best solution is that the people they want to remove from the prison should be relocated to the barracks, from the barracks, it is secure, if they try to come (barracks) then that is where the soldiers are and there would be no much damage.” He explained.
”But you know on top of that, those people were picked and taken to prisons in Kampala. Then later those who were taken to Kampala asked for amnesty, that they were wrong; indeed they were collaborating with those in the bush (rebels). The leader (President Museveni) was the one who granted them amnesty and had them released from prison, so where was the problem?” He questioned.
”Were we supposed to allow the LRA to come and remove them and many people die? It was not intended; it was for the safety of the majority.” He noted.
The cold case
In December 2017, in an opinion published in the Daily Monitor, current Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and Democratic Party President, Mr Norbert Mao narrated that it was a cloudy day when a contingent of UPDF soldiers led by Gen Otema forcefully abducted 21 prisoners, who were on charges ranging from murder to treason and later locked them up in the UPDF 4th Division Barracks in Gulu.
Mr Mao explained that on that fateful day, Oloya got visitors from home. They brought him his favourite dish: four legs and a head of a goat. Cooked food is not allowed in prisons. He had it prepared, and he ate it with his colleagues during dinner. The others include Ochieng David Penytoo, Lukwiya Pido, Stephen Olanya, Alex Otim and Tonny Kitara.
At 8 pm, it was time for lock up and Oloya went to his ward- Ward Number 3.
In the middle of the night, the inmates heard loud noises and banging of doors. Furniture was being roughly thrown about; people were wailing. These noises were coming from around the guard house near the gate located about 10 meters away from Wards 2 and 3. Inside the wards, lights were on. Outside, it was pitch black.
Loud commands were heard demanding that ”the six must be handed over immediately”. Soon the small gate leading to the courtyard was forced open, and a huge contingent of heavily armed soldiers swarmed the compound. The soldiers then headed to Ward 3 situated directly opposite Ward 2. There, Oloya and Pido were ordered out. Oloya, who was dressed in yellow uniform shorts and shirt, together with Pido, complied with the orders and came out.
Soon, there was a brief but violent scuffle. A loud voice was overheard shouting in Swahili: ‘nani wuyo, piga, piga yeye ‘, literally meaning ‘who is that one? Shoot him’. Shortly, a hail of bullets was sprayed, and the prisoners were ordered into the gate house.
The region prisons commander, Mr Onyai (as quoted by Mao), was in the office. He was seated on the floor holding his head with both hands. His facial expression embodied pain and grief. Inside the gate house, the prisoners were beaten and kicked about as the prison officers looked on helplessly.
They were then dragged and shoved into a waiting military truck.
Armoured Personnel Carriers, commonly known as ‘Mamba’ and Buffalo, were parked nearby, their bright headlamps beaming directly at the prison main gate. The prisoners were ordered to lie face down in the waterlogged truck.
Other prisoners were ordered to carry the lifeless body of Oloya into the truck.
The heavily escorted truck sped off. The convoy stopped at the quarter guard of the 4th Division headquarters. The inmates were shoved out of the truck amid kicks and beating.
The truck drove off with Yumbe’s body.
Oloya’s body was reportedly dumped in an unmarked grave at the cemetery originally earmarked for victims of Ebola. Demands for the government to exhume his body and hand it to his family have fallen on deaf ears.
Who is Lt Gen Otema?
Lt Gen Charles Otema Awany stated that as a private, he served in many ranks of the UPDF, including commander of the reserve forces, chief of logistics, liaison officer of the 165 brigade, and director of transport. He joined the army in 1979 and retired officially on August 20, 2026, alongside 19 other senior generals.
Speaking during the two-and-a-half-hour-long radio show, which the former army commander described as a bonfire chat relayed from his home village in Tangi Village, Purongo Town Council, Nwoya District, Lt Gen Otema recalls being an altar boy who had thought of joining the priesthood, but disclosed that his decision to join the army was driven by bravery and the pain of seeing Ugandans being killed by people linked to former President Idi Amin, including his late father Savio Ojok Awany.
He explained that after Amin was finally ousted and the transition to the National Resistance Army (NRA), his roles turned to pacifying northern Uganda, staging attacks against the LRA rebel group in Uganda, DR Congo and Sudan.
”If there is anyone that Kony (LRA leader) badly wanted, it’s Otema Awany. I disrupted him a lot. The most important thing was to save the lives of the people.” He stated.
”Museveni (President) asked me to return home and help the people. He asked me to coordinate intelligence. There was a lot of pressure.” He recalled.
”I sacrificed to come and tell people not to fight. No war, peace talk; I used radio (Radio 4 and Mega FM) to ask the fighters (LRA) to return home.” He explained, noting that thousands successfully returned home. Sharing his encounters as a soldier, Lt Gen Otema said: ”God saved me.” Relating to an incident in West Nile, Koboko District, which he said he and his troop of about 600 men were attacked by rebels aligned to Idi Amin and only about 200 survived.
”Many people died; only about 200 left. We retreated (from Koboko District) to Pakwach Bridge.” The Tanzanian later reinforced us; some militias backed us, then we returned and captured Bondo, Arua and Koboko.”
Lt Gen Otema said he survived death several times in Koboko, Yumbe, including an incident where a bullet instead hit a pistol he had in his waist, leaving him alive, and another incident in Gulu District where he entered an ambush of rebels, but was able to escape only because he had a civilian dress and wasn’t known to the attackers immediately.
Civilian life
As he incorporates himself into civilian life, Lt Gen Otema says he will shift focus to wealth creation through farming, but also called on the Acholi people to desist from political differences and embrace unity for consolidated development and unity.
”Don’t worry about me; I instead worry for my people. I will be available for my people; our wealth is in the land. Let us love ourselves as a tribe; leadership should not divide us. Avoid political differences; let’s use this time to unite as a tribe. If we stand together, we shall be respected, he advised.
Traditional cleansing
As part of his reunion with the civilian community, a cleansing ceremony at his ancestral home in Tangi, Purongo Town Council in Nwoya District, and the Acholi Cultural Institution has been performed to rid him of bad omens.
The cleansing ceremony includes stepping on a raw egg mounted at the entry of a homestead barefoot, stepping over the indigenous Pobo tree, and a long stick known as Layibi used for opening the granary. A goat is slaughtered, and the blood and cub are sprinkled on the person undergoing the procedure.
A Thursday, August, 28, 2026, mega homecoming ceremony has also been arranged at Kaunda Grounds in Gulu City to welcome him back among the people.
Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) Chairperson, Ms Catherine Lamwaka, said the welcome ceremony is to recognise and appreciate Lt Gen Otema’s unwavering support to the Acholi community and Uganda at large.