Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s first son and Commander of the Land Forces of the national army, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), is one of the key people in the Museveni succession equation. And the president’s son has made a shocking revelation on this succession plan, giving great insight to political observers into what to expect in the coming years.
Muhoozi’s father Gen Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has been Uganda’s president since taking over power in 1986 following a five-year bush war that left hundreds of thousands in the Luweero Triangle dead.
In 2026, Gen Museveni will have ruled Uganda for a cool four decades. In the same year, Uganda will go to the polls to choose a new president. Museveni will be eligible, thanks to a 2017 decision by the country’s Parliament removing the presidential age limit from the Constitution. Without that landmark amendment to the Constitution, Gen Museveni would have been ineligible for reelection in 2021 since he had crossed the 75 years’ cap.
But over the years, Gen Museveni son Lt Gen Kainerugaba, who was trained at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, has been rising in rank and weight of assignments. He is currently the Commander of the UPDF Land Forces, one of the top positions in the national army’s hierarchy and command.
And in the past three years, Muhoozi has increasing become a key component of the Museveni succession story, even tackling the 2013 claim by former spymaster Gen David Sejusa (previously Tinyefuuza) that there was a plot to assassinate top military officers and government officials opposed to a plan by Museveni to make his son succeed him. That plan is what was called the Muhoozi Project.
This year has been a turning point for the so-called Muhoozi Project. From countrywide celebrations to a state dinner to celebrate the first son’s 48th birthday, the reading on his presidential ambitions has been on the wall.
Yet there appears to have been some flipflopping as evidenced in an avalanche of the first son’s tweets, a number of them a bit controversial and raising diplomatic and security concerns, especially coming from a man of his rank and position in the UPDF, and a president’s son believed to be a ‘crown prince.’ (Muhoozi is even referred to as Uganda’s tweeting general).
Some of Muhoozi’s tweets only live on the Twitter feed live for a few seconds, minutes or sometimes a few hours. Then they get deleted, perhaps due to an order from the Commander-in-Chief (CiC) of the armed forces. So controversial are Muhoozi’s tweets that his ‘uncle’ President Paul Kagame of Rwanda offered to start editing the tweets by Museveni’s son. (Read Story Here).
But in the age of technology, deleted tweets do not easily die. Such ‘hard to kill’ tweets appeared on Muhoozi’s official Twitter handle on Monday, October 03 evening. Giving great insights into Muhoozi’s and Museveni’s succession plan, the tweets were later deleted from the first’s son’s account.
In one of these now-inexistent tweets sent out at 8:59 on October 03, 2022, Muhoozi talked of proving to elders that the young generation can govern Uganda well.
“My generation, I love you so much! They used to say that we couldn’t stand for Presidency. That we were abaana! [children]. Let’s prove to our elders that we can rule this country well,” wrote Muhoozi via his official handle: @mkainerugaba.
He also seemed to announce an end to his father Museveni’s four-decade rule and declaring the start of a new era led by him in 2026. He even claimed this ‘takeover’ was part of instructions from Jesus Christ.
“In 2026, it will be 40 years of the old people in charge. That will change,” he wrote in a now deleted tweet. Those are instructions from Jesus Christ! Our generation will be in charge of this country.”
The deleted tweet’s link: https://twitter.com/mkainerugaba/status/1576999315805196289.
Hours before these tweets, Muhoozi had claimed his ‘army’ would capture Nairobi in two weeks, prompting Kenyans to ‘roast’ him. (Read Story Here).
Muhoozi had also made it clear that he and his group (probably his army) will never allow Bobi Wine to become Uganda’s president. (Read Story Here).
Meanwhile, as the succession debate rages on, a prophet who accurately predicted William Ruto’s presidency has revealed the man God has reportedly told him will become Uganda’s President after Gen Museveni. (Read Story Here).
