{"id":2136,"date":"2020-10-27T08:21:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T08:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=2136"},"modified":"2020-10-27T11:55:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T11:55:42","slug":"bantariza-the-liveliest-army-spokesman-uganda-ever-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/bantariza-the-liveliest-army-spokesman-uganda-ever-had\/","title":{"rendered":"Bantariza, The Liveliest Army Spokesman Uganda Ever Had"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u00a0 Shaban Bantariza! Ugandan journalists who joined the profession after 2005 may never know the fun of engaging with \u00a0a confident military spokesman. Colonel (then Major) Shaban Bantariza who took up the post in 2000, was redeployed from the spokesmanship in 2005 to join his senior colleagues as pioneer students of the Kimaka military academy.

\u00a0To Journalists who were in service by 2005, he was simply \u2018Banta\u2019 and like the name suggested, he would give banter anytime a journalist called him. \u00a0 The ease of engaging the media arose from several factors. First, Bantariza was a \u2018bushman\u2019 as the NRA guerillas were referred to after they took power and formed government. So he knew \u00a0the army in and out, having engaged closely with the top command in the trenches.

When you got close enough, he could regale you with war stories of arguments of who had the privilege to chew raw cassava among the big commanders, some of them now four-star generals. \u00a0 Secondly, Banta has a deep intellectual grounding, starting from all those theological studies he \u00a0undertook before picking up the gun to go and fight in the jungles of Luwero \u2013 he was actually a Catholic cleric. He belonged to the congregation of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, headquartered at Kisubi. \u2018Shaban\u2019 is just a nom de guerre adopted for security of family and relatives, \u00a0but he was never a Muslim.

\u201cNze ndi fulera\u201d he would remind journalists meaning he was a reverend brother \u2013 otherwise a Frere, the French title for a brother. His congregation had links with French speaking Canadians. One of the memorable quips Banta gave journalists was when he was called upon to respond to opposition politicians claims that the ammunition factory of Nakasongola was making fake bullets. \u00a0 Without wasting time, Bantariza challenged the politicians to come to Constitutional Square and they shoot at him with the fake bullets.

After graduating from the first cohort of Kimaka, Bantariza, now \u00a0risen to the rank of Colonel, had several assignments including Commandant of the Oliver Tambo Leadership College and the Kyankwazi school of political education. \u00a0 He retired officially from the army in 2015.Colonel Shaban Bantariza passed on at Mulago Hospital on the night of 26-27 October, 2020.

The life and times of Col. Shaban Bantariza<\/strong>
Batanzira was born in\u00a0Mitooma District<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Uganda’s Western Region<\/a>, circa 1963. He attended\u00a0St. Leo’s College, Kyegobe<\/a>, in\u00a0Fort Portal<\/a>,\u00a0Kabarole District<\/a>\u00a0for his O-Level studies. He then joined the Catholic brotherhood, where he trained as an elementary school teacher.

While pursuing a course at\u00a0Makerere University<\/a>\u00a0in 1985, he abandoned his studies and joined the\u00a0National Resistance Army<\/a>, led by\u00a0Gen.Yoweri Museveni<\/a>. He attended guerrilla bootcamp in the Kabarore area, in foothills of the\u00a0Rwenzori Mountains<\/a>.\u00a0He also attended and graduated from the\u00a0Uganda Senior Command and Staff College<\/a>, having studied the senior command course offered annually at the college.

While pursuing a course at\u00a0Makerere University<\/a>\u00a0in 1985, he abandoned his studies and joined the\u00a0National Resistance Army<\/a>, led by\u00a0Yoweri Museveni<\/a>. He attended guerrilla bootcamp in the Kabarore area, in foothills of the\u00a0Rwenzori Mountains<\/a>.\u00a0He also attended and graduated from the\u00a0Uganda Senior Command and Staff College<\/a>, having studied the senior command course offered annually at the college.
Military career<\/strong>
Bantariza served as the UPDF spokesperson from 2000 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2006.\u00a0For a period of time, prior to February 2009, Batanzira, at the rank of\u00a0lieutenant colonel<\/a>, served as the commander of the Oliver Tambo Leadership School,\u00a0in\u00a0Kaweweta<\/a>,\u00a0Nakaseke District<\/a>, in\u00a0Uganda’s Central Region<\/a>.\u00a0On 26 February 2009, he was appointed commandant of the National Leadership Institute (NALI), in\u00a0Kyankwanzi<\/a>,\u00a0Kyankwanzi District<\/a>.\u00a0He served in that capacity until he was relieved of his duties on 7 October 2011.

In June 2013, he was appointed as Deputy Executive Director of the National Media Centre. On 2 July 2013, at the rank of\u00a0colonel<\/a>, he was arrested, charged with embezzlement and remanded to Makindye Military prison by the General Court Martial on charges of alleged fraud.\u00a0After proceedings that lasted nearly three years,[<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0the Court Martial, chaired by\u00a0Major General<\/a>\u00a0Levi Karuhanga<\/a>, acquitted Colonel Bantariza due to lack of evidence against him, on 14 April 2015.[<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0On 24 June 2015, following his acquittal by the general court martial, he resumed work at the Uganda Media Centre, the president of Uganda having directed in writing that Bantariza resumes work.[<\/a><\/sup>
Retirem<\/strong><\/sup>ent from the UPDF<\/sup><\/strong>
On 28 September 2015, Bantariza retired from the UPDF. He continued to serve as the deputy government spokesperson until his death on the 26th of October the year 2020.<\/td>		<\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Shaban Bantariza! Ugandan journalists who joined the profession after 2005 may never know the fun of engaging with \u00a0a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/bantaliza.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2151,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/col-shaban-bantariza-was-ideologically-deep-says-gen-muhoozi\/","url_meta":{"origin":2136,"position":0},"title":"COL .SHABAN BANTARIZA WAS IDEOLOGICALLY DEEP SAYS GEN.MUHOOZI","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"October 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen David Muhoozi, has said that late Shaban Bantariza\u00a0 was \u201c ideologically deep\u201d and urged his comrades in the armed forces to keep the good works of their fallen colleague . 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