NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 12– President Yoweri Museveni’s son and advisor for special operations, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has walked back his comments on retirement from the army indicating instead that he will “retire in eight years.”
Lt. Gen. Kainerugaba’s tweet on his purported retirement on March 8 stirred mixed reactions on social media with most observers saying he was probably being groomed to take over form his 77-year-old father, who has been in power since 1986.
“After 28 years of service in my glorious military, the greatest military in the world, I am happy to announce my retirement,” he tweeted.
“Me and my soldiers have achieved so much! I have only love and respect for all those great men and women that achieve greatness for Uganda everyday,” Kainerugaba said.
Sentiments of Kainerugaba’s possible elevation to national politics by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) founded by his father in 1986.
NRM started as a liberation movement that waged a guerrilla war through its rebel wing National Resistance Army (NRA) which deposed Idi Amin, ending his rule in 1979 and later led a rebellion against Milton Obote who died in 1985.
An aggressive user of the Twitter platform, Lt. Gen. Kainerugaba has often announced key government undertakings on social media including his recent diplomatic engagement with Rwandan President Paul Kagame which saw the two nations reopen a border crossing closed for three years.
Although Kainerugaba is yet to pull down the tweet announcing his exit from the army, he retweeted another tweet indicating that he had halted the plans.
Uganda’s military — the UPDF — has yet to issue a statement clarifying the matter.
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