President’s wayward son ‘untouchable’
– General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, pictured, the son of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, has threatened to invade Kenya, vowed to defend Russia from Western “imperialists” and even mocked his authoritarian father in public.
But he has never paid a price for his social media tirades, bolstering his reputation as the virtually untouchable successor to one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers, experts say.
And capping a meteoric rise, the government announced late on Thursday that Museveni has appointed his only son to head Uganda’s defence forces.
The 49 year old, known as Muhoozi, first came to wider attention in 1998.
Then a fresh-faced graduate, he began recruiting students for the presidential guard, raising questions about whether his father was trying to build a political dynasty. Museveni brushed off the speculation but Kainerugaba rose swiftly through Ugandan army ranks, training at Britain’s elite military academy Sandhurst, as well as in Egypt, the United States and South Africa.
“With senior command courses lined up, promotions one after another, it was clear Muhoozi was being prepared for higher positions” Kampala-based security analyst Lauben Oketch said.
Kainerugaba was sent on senior command courses above his rank “to accelerate his promotions and the family agenda”.
His dizzying career trajectory saw him promoted to brigadier and put in charge of Uganda’s all-powerful Special Forces Command, before his elevation to major general in 2016 and, now, defence forces chief.
He was deployed in South Sudan and Somalia as part of Ugandan interventions to shore up governments there and played a prominent role in campaigns against the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army and the Allied Democratic Forces militia.
In March last year, Kainerugaba announced plans to run for the presidency in 2026 in a social media post that was later deleted.
He also appeared to take a dig at his father, writing: “Enough of the old people ruling us. Dominating us. It’s time for our generation to shine.”
Mwambutsya Ndebesa, an academic at Makerere University in Kampala, said the comments were possibly “intended to be a smokescreen, a resemblance of internal democracy, which in reality is not the case”. –