UPDF under pressure for rejecting recruits over tattoos

• MPs have questioned the rejection of prospective UPDF recruits because of tattoos.

• Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka says the specific circumstances behind the rejection will be investigated.

• The UPDF's published 2026 eligibility criteria do not explicitly identify tattoos as grounds for disqualification.

The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) has come under scrutiny in parliament over the reported rejection of prospective recruits because they have tattoos.

The national army through the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs was pushed to explain whether the practice forms part of the army’s legal recruitment requirements.

The issue was raised on the house floor on Wednesday as MPs questioned why otherwise qualified Ugandans were being eliminated from the ongoing recruitment exercise over tattoos.

In response, the Defense Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka told parliament that the established requirements include Ugandan citizenship, good character, adulthood and medical fitness. 

He said the circumstances surrounding the reported rejection would have to be examined.

“For us in the UPDF, what you may think is small is not small, it’s very big,” Kiwanuka said.

He promised to follow up with the assessment centre to establish why the particular recruitment candidate had been rejected.

The controversy comes as the army conducts the physical stage of its 2026 nationwide recruitment exercise, which seeks to enlist 10,200 personnel into regular and professional categories. 

The physical recruitment phase started on August 10 and runs until August 22, 2026.

The UPDF says only shortlisted applicants should report to designated recruitment centres in the districts where their names appear. Candidates face physical and medical examinations before final selection.

Under the published general eligibility criteria, applicants must be Ugandan citizens with valid National Identification Cards. They must also be physically and medically fit, law-abiding and have no criminal record.

Applicants must also be residents of the areas where they apply. Their applications require recommendations from LC1, LC2 and LC3 chairpersons, as well as the GISO or DISO and Resident District Commissioner.

For general recruits, the UPDF set the age at between 18 and 22 years. The exercise targets holders of Uganda Certificate of Education and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education qualifications, while separate categories cover professionals in ICT, engineering, aviation, health, law and other specialised fields.

Shortlisted applicants reporting for physical recruitment are required to carry a handwritten application with the prescribed recommendations, their original National ID or NIN, original and copied academic documents and three coloured passport photographs.

The UPDF's published 2026 general eligibility requirements do not explicitly list tattoos among the grounds for disqualification. They instead require candidates to pass physical and medical assessments.

However, tattoos have previously caused candidates to be rejected during UPDF recruitment exercises.