Women Shun UPDF Recruitment in Arua

Women in West Nile region have shunned the UPDF recruitment exercise taking place in Arua with less than 10 ladies out of over 1000 candidates who turned up for the exercise today.

The recruitment for West Nile region taking place at the Arua town police grounds has a target of 158 successful recruits for the whole region comprising 12 districts.

Colonel Stephen Ebulu, the UPDF Team Leader Arua recruitment center says despite efforts by the female officers to convince more ladies to join the army, the turn up has remained poor.

According to him, there are still hopes that the region will be able to have more ladies join UPDF in the next recruitment exercises. 

// Cue in; The turn up has … Cue out; fellow soldier ladies….." //  However according to Nahori Oya, the RDC Arua, the low number of ladies showing up at the recruitment center is regrettable. He adds that the long distance for those from Adjumani, Moyo, Obongi, Pakwach, Zombo among other districts could have hindered many from showing up at the recruitment center in Arua. 

// Cue in; Yes, maybe it … Cue out; is a fair number…." //  Some of the recruits who were turned away expressed disappointment over the manner in which the exercise was conducted and also blamed some of the recruiting leaders for been unfair to them.   // Cue in; I don’t feel good … Cue out; ‘wasted our time to come here…." // 

Other challenges that also marred the UPDF recruitment exercise for West Nile according to the officials include: presentation of forged documents, with four cases recorded but left to go, lost IDs, candidates showing up without documents and many several showing up late for the recruitment.

By the time URN compiled this report, last lot road run and medical screening of over 500 candidates was still kicking off.