Uganda: Museveni Drops Muhoozi As Commander Land Forces, Promotes Him to General

Lieutenant-General Muhoozi Kainerugaba (file photo).
4 October 2022

President Museveni has sacked First Son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba as the commander of Land Forces in the UPDF.

According to a message on Tuesday afternoon, Muhoozi will now be replaced by Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga as the commander Land Forces in the UPDF.

The president however promoted Muhoozi to full general whereas Muhanga was promoted from the rank of Major General to Lieutenant General.

Immediately after the changes, Muhoozi changed his twitter profile to read: Special Presidential Advisor/Special Operations.

Muhoozi's promotion to full general could be a softening of the blow. It will be the second time in five years that Museveni is sacking his son from a command position.

In 2017, he dropped Muhoozi as commander of Special Forces Command (SFC).

As special advisor, he will have no clearly defined role within the army.

Muhoozi had earlier hinted in a tweet that there will be changes after he talked to his father.

The changes

The changes stem from the recent Twitter meltdown by Lt Gen Kainerugaba in which he said he would only need two weeks with his army to capture Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

"It would take us, my army and me two weeks to capture Nairobi. After we capture Nairobi, where should I live? Westlands? Riverside?"

He added, "I am happy that members of our district in Kenya have responded enthusiastically to my tweet. It's still two weeks to Nairobi."

The sporadic tweets have left many people bewildered and some wondering whether Kainerugaba is in charge of his twitter handle.

Some of Muhoozi's defenders like Agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze have urged the public not to take the tweets seriously because they are made in jest.

Yet jokes or not, the tweets have tickled many people the wrong away, especially the Kenyans.

Today morning, Uganda's ambassador to Nairobi, Hassan Galiwango was reportedly summoned to a meeting by Kenya's Foreign Affairs minister elect Alfred Mutua, over several issues including Muhoozi's tweets, according to sources.

We reported earlier that Museveni had ordered his son to stop tweeting fwaa.

It will not be the first time Muhoozi's social media outbursts have landed him in trouble with the president.

In July this year, President Museveni told the army council sitting in Entebbe that such uncontrolled communication can create enemies for Uganda.

"Especially where it involves other countries, it can have the effect of damaging our export opportunities and also causing unprincipled divisions among us," Museveni said in July.

However, Muhoozi later dismissed the reports as being untrue.

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