UPDF Breaks Silence on Reports that Soldiers Have not Received Their Salaries for Three Months

Uganda’s national army, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), has spoken out on reports that its officers have gone three months without getting their salaries. 

The claimed were contained in a statement attributed to Deputy Chief of Defence Forces (D-CDF) Lt Gen Peter Elwelu, and purportedly published by an online publication.

The statement, which the online publication has since said was fake, read: “our soldiers have not been earning salary for the past three months. Their payment is meagre, so they have to survive by their rifles. We all need money to survive and we have guns to get us that money.”

Even when the online publication insisted that the statement attributed to Gen Elwelu was fake, the UPDF has come out to express shock at the allegations.

According to Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, the spokesperson of the UPDF and the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs (MoDVA), the soldiers have received their salaries except for the month of June.

“I have read a story in the NP with dismay. The UPDF soldiers are update with their salaries. We are only waiting for the month of June. The D/CDF, therefore could NOT have said what is attributed to him by the NP,” said Brig Gen Kulayigye.

The allegations of soldiers’ unpaid salaries come amidst reports of anger, discontent and divisions within in the national army over President Museveni’s son’s Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s rumored 2026 presidential ambitions. (Read Story Here).

READ: Museveni Breaks Silence on Muhoozi 2026 Presidential Bid