Museveni: Why I promoted Muhoozi despite Twitter gaffe

NATION AFRICA|NAIROBI: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has personally apologised over the recent tweets made by his son and Ugandan military General Muhoozi Kainerugaba who made a series of threats of invading Nairobi.

According to President Museveni, General Kainerugaba’s remarks were inappropriate as they interfered with the internal affairs of Kenya.

“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. The only available legitimate forum is the Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union or confidential interactions among us or EAC and AU fora –not public comments,” he said in a statement posted on his social media.

He has also moved fast to defend his recent promotion of Mr Kainerugaba to a full general arguing that he has made many positive contributions to the country.

“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 added.

The Ugandan military boss’s utterances on social media have caused controversy and forced the country to confront an awkward diplomatic row.

Resolve the issue

Reports indicate that following the utterances, diplomats from both countries were held up in a closed-door meeting in a bid to resolve the issue.

But even as the diplomats met to resolve the issue, Mr Kainerugaba went on to post other controversial tweets that exacerbated the situation. 

So serious was the issue that Mr Museveni made a phone call to Kenyan President William Ruto to apologise on behalf of Uganda.

Mr Museveni said he had conveyed the views of Ugandans to Dr Ruto.

The 48-year-old is the firstborn son of Yoweri Museveni and has risen quickly through the ranks to become a full general which is the highest rank in the Ugandan military.

Until the tweets, he worked as the Commander of the Land Forces.