Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has warned against provoking the national army Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers.

President Museveni was delivering his state of the nation address in Kampala on Tuesday ahead of the 2017-18 financial year budget reading.

Museveni said “The UPDF does what it does because of conviction”.

“You should be careful not to insult the UPDF even if you’re a Member of Parliament,” he said.

Museveni added that UPDF and other sister agencies had the capacity to defend the country’s peace.

“The UPDF has capacity to ensure that nobody disturbs the peace of the country.”

On the current wave of insecurity, Museveni said “Police have been rightful criticized for being relaxed in their operations” but added that the criminal gangs were easy to deal with.

“The attempt by criminals to cause rural scare is easy to deal with because rural areas are not as congested”.

On alleged torture of suspects, Museveni said: “The issue of alleged torture by the Police was dealt with by myself… When these reports came up I carried out an analysis of torture.”