Museveni issues apology to Kenya for son’s controversial tweets

By Jerry Omondi

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni attends a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 26, 2022. /Russian Foreign Ministry / handout via CFP

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday issued an apology to Kenya, following a series of controversial tweets from his son and army general, Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s, which drew a lot of attention.

Gen Muhoozi made a series of bizarre social media posts between Monday and Tuesday in relation to a military operation in neighboring Kenya.

In one of his posts, Muhoozi, who was on Tuesday promoted to general, claimed “it would take us, my army and me, 2 weeks to capture Nairobi.”

In his statement on Tuesday, President Museveni asked Kenyans to “forgive us for tweets sent by General Muhoozi, former Commander of Land Forces here, regarding the election matters in that great country.”

“It is not correct for Public officers, be they civilian or military, to comment or interfere in any way, in the internal affairs of brother countries,” he added.

The Ugandan head of state also noted that he had spoken confidentially with his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto.

In his statement, President Museveni also indicated the rational of promoting his son to general despite the controversy stirred.

” This is because this mistake is one aspect where he has acted negatively as a Public officer. 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,” he said.

Major General Kayanja Muhanga, the commander of the ongoing Shujaa operation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was on Tuesday promoted to replace Gen Muhoozi as the commander of Uganda’s land forces.