In three-month’s time Retired General David Bugozi Musuguri would have reached 105 years, a century plus half a decade, but the ace fighter died on the 29th Day of October 2024.
The feared Musuguri celebrated his 100th birthday on the 4th of January 2020.
He earned the Pseudonym, ‘General Mutukula,’ in 1979 after heading the Tanzanian forces that ousted the Ugandan Dictator, Idd Amin, who coincidentally was once a student of Musuguri.
Until his death, General Musuguri was probably one of the few surviving members of the King’s African Rifles into which he enlisted in 1942, then aged only 22, starting out as a private.
Musuguri also served the King African Rifles (KAR) in Madagascar and in 1947 became a sergeant and acted as an instructor at Kahawa Barracks in Nairobi, Kenya where he would meet Idi Amin, with latter becoming his pupil.
David Musuguri earned the ‘Effendi’ (Afande) rank in 1957, when the British administration introduced the military status into the King African Rifles.
When the country became a sovereign state in December 1961, a number of KAR units were transferred to the newly formed Tanganyika Rifles and the rank of effendi was dropped.
Musuguri was promoted to lieutenant rank in 1962 and rose to the rank of brigadier by 1978.
In November 1980, while still in Uganda, Musuguri was appointed to become the Chief of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces. This prompted him to return to Tanzania in order to assume the new military position.
President Julius Nyerere promoted Musuguri to Lieutenant General on December 30, 1980.
In 1981, the former Ugandan President, Milton Obote awarded Musuguri two spears to honor the General’s gallant war action in the ‘Battle of Lukaya.’
Following his retirement, in 1988, David Musuguri moved to his home village at Butiama in Musoma District of Mara Region.
In 2014, the former Tanzanian President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete awarded General Musuguri with the Order of the Union Third Class.