President Museveni has explained circumstances under which he promoted Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba despite having dropped him as UPDF commander for Land Forces.

In a mini- reshuffle announced on Tuesday, Museveni, as the commander in chief of the armed forces replaced Muhoozi Kainerugaba with Gen Kayanja Muhanga as the Land Forces Commander.

This stemmed from Muhoozi's controversial tweets in which he said he would capture Kenya's capital Nairobi in two weeks.

However, members of public have since questioned the rationale behind promoting Muhoozi who had earlier been "punished" for his controversial tweets against a neighbouring country.

However, in a statement on Wednesday, President Museveni defended the move.

"Why, then, promote him to full General after these comments? This is because this mistake is one aspect where he has acted negatively as a public officer," Museveni said.

"There are, however, many other positive contributions the General has made and can still make. This is a time-tested formula - discourage the negative and encourage the positive."

The Tuesday promotion saw Muhoozi at 48 become the youngest serving four- start general of the UPDF.

He has since said he will celebrate the feat by throwing a street bash along Kampala road in a few days to come.

It remains to be seen what Gen Muhoozi's next deployment in the UPDF will be .