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KAMPALA, Uganda — He has boasted that he might seize the capital of neighboring Kenya in two weeks. He has provided a dowry of 100 cows to marry Italy’s new feminine prime minister. And he has claimed that almost all of “non-white” folks world wide supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With a barrage of provocative, late-night Twitter posts within the final yr, Muhoozi Kainerugaba — the 48-year-old son of the president of Uganda, and a navy common — has unnerved Ugandans and regional allies, and develop into a humiliation for President Yoweri Museveni, who has chided his eldest baby publicly, apologized on his behalf and promised that his son would depart Twitter altogether.
However Gen. Kainerugaba continues to be tweeting, elevating his public profile as he tries to place himself to succeed his father, a detailed Western navy ally whose landlocked nation receives nearly a billion {dollars} in growth help every year from the US. Gen. Kainerugaba has vowed to not “cease till we’re in full management” of Uganda.
His father has held an more and more authoritarian grip on the nation for 37 years, a six-term president who at 78 has already begun receiving endorsements to run within the 2026 elections. Ugandan political specialists say he’s unlikely ever to relinquish energy.
However as President Museveni’s vigor wanes, specialists say he’s trying to protect his household’s dominance and making an attempt to line up his son as a successor. But he’s coy about absolutely backing him, partly due to his exasperation with the stream of erratic tweets his son has shared along with his over 650,000 followers, in keeping with a number of Uganda analysts and Western officers.
“Whilst he encourages him to develop into a public determine, Museveni now realizes that he’s not in full management of his son,” mentioned a senior Western official who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate issues. “He isn’t in the identical caliber politically as his father and he’s fairly self-absorbed and that informs folks’s evaluation of whether or not he’s appropriate for the presidency.”
The query of succession has taken middle stage in Uganda, one in all many African international locations dominated by ageing strongmen. Some African leaders have arrange their kids, wives or different family members as successors. Different leaders have tried to put the groundwork for successors, however failed — as in Zimbabwe, Egypt and Angola, the place the ruling dos Santos household misplaced management when its patriarch stepped down.
The Ugandan president has been testing his son’s prospects with the general public, political analysts say, as succession tensions construct amongst ruling social gathering cadres and the military. He has dispatched his son on diplomatic visits throughout Africa, promoted him to a full common and thrown him a lavish state dinner for his birthday final yr.
“As a consequence of Museveni’s advancing age, there’s loads of stress constructing on the query of succession and Muhoozi is an insurance coverage coverage,” mentioned Michael Mutyaba, a Ugandan researcher and political analyst. “He’s meant to behave as a shock absorber.”
Gen. Kainerugaba declined a number of requests for an interview via a spokesman, and President Museveni’s spokesman didn’t reply.
Since coming to energy in 1986, Mr. Museveni has modified legal guidelines to remain in workplace, suspended dozens of nongovernmental organizations, and subjected activists and opposition members to arbitrary detention, disappearances and torture. Two years in the past, the president declared victory after a bloody election replete with accusations of vote tampering.
The flood of tweets from Gen. Kainerugaba has revived questions on an alleged scheme, often known as the “Muhoozi Venture,” to groom the president’s son for energy.
The federal government has denied that there ever was any such plan. However with the current tweets, there’s renewed apprehension about dynastic rule.
Mr. Museveni’s household is deeply entrenched in energy. His spouse, Janet, is the minister of schooling and sports activities. His brother Salim Saleh is an influential businessman and serves as a navy adviser. His son-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo, is a presidential adviser who harbors political ambitions.
Gen. Kainerugaba has held a number of strategic positions within the navy and is a particular adviser to his father.
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Final March, the overall tweeted his intention to retire from the army, a precondition to working for workplace in Uganda. The choice caught navy officers unexpectedly. He later retracted it, saying he’ll retire in eight years.
His offhand tweets concerning the war in Ukraine have particularly discomfited his father, in keeping with two folks accustomed to these discussions. Mr. Museveni has mentioned he wished to stay impartial concerning the warfare in Ukraine. When Gen. Kainerugaba voiced assist for President Vladimir V. Putin, the president said that his son was “talking for himself.”
In October, when Gen. Kainerugaba threatened to seize the Kenyan capital, the president requested Kenyans for forgiveness. He then fired Gen. Kainerugaba as commander of the nation’s land forces — though he promoted him from lieutenant common to a full common — and mentioned he directed him to remain off Twitter and stop commenting on different nations’ inner affairs.
However his son said on Twitter that nobody might “ban me from something.” He has said he’ll “positively” develop into president.
His supporters have plastered his image on billboards and posted fawning messages on social media. To increase his sphere of affect, specialists say, he has privately supported the political candidacies of a number of pals and the appointment of others to crucial authorities posts.
David Kabanda, a lawmaker with the ruling Nationwide Resistance Motion social gathering and a staunch supporter of Gen. Kainerugaba, mentioned in an interview, “It’s excessive time for President Museveni at hand over energy to the following era.”
Through the years, Mr. Museveni has amended the structure, to take away presidential time period and age limits, permitting him to retain energy. He might equally lay the groundwork for his son’s eventual accession to energy, Mr. Mutyaba, the analyst, mentioned.
Final yr, some members of the ruling social gathering steered the president needs to be elected by lawmakers and district officers as an alternative of the overall inhabitants, which might make it simpler for his son to achieve the excessive workplace.
“They may hold altering the foundations and amending to get what they need,” Mr. Mutyaba mentioned.
Gen. Kainerugaba was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, whereas his father fought the federal government of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. His identify, Muhoozi, means “the avenger,” the president has mentioned. He has three youthful sisters: Natasha, Endurance and Diana.
He was shy in school, in keeping with three pals, however confirmed curiosity within the debate membership. He spent hours studying about navy technique and revolutionary leaders like Mao Zedong, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, they mentioned. His pals described him as a superb listener and beneficiant to a fault.
However by his early 20s, Gen. Kainerugaba was predisposed to bombastic declarations, telling a convention in 1995 that Uganda will “by no means have lasting peace” until rich Ugandans rule the nation.
He has mentioned he attended the Royal Navy Academy Sandhurst, in Britain, however the college declined to remark for privateness causes. He completed a 10-month course in 2008 on the U.S. Military Command and Normal Employees Faculty at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He printed a e-book on the historical past of recent Ugandan resistance battles.
His pugilistic strategy to politics was evident after 2012, when he turned the pinnacle of the restructured Particular Forces Command, an elite personal unit tasked with defending Mr. Museveni and his pursuits. The outfit has been accused of finishing up human rights violations, notably across the 2021 elections.
Gen. Kainerugaba has additionally personally confronted accusations. He was named in a criticism alleging a wave of abductions and abuse, filed within the Worldwide Prison Court docket by Bobi Wine, a musician turned politician who ran for president towards Mr. Museveni in 2021.
And Kakwenza Rukirabashaija — writer of the books “The Grasping Barbarian” and “Banana Republic: The place Writing is Treasonous,” — mentioned in an interview that after he wrote tweets criticizing the overall and his father, safety officers took him from his home after breaking in, whipped him, plucked his thighs with pliers and ordered him to bop nearly all day.
He mentioned Gen. Kainerugaba visited him in jail thrice, and promised to provide him “something I wished” so long as he didn’t reveal his scars to anybody or communicate to the press, and promised to take away “Banana Republic” from Amazon.
Gen. Kainerugaba’s spokesman has denied the 2 met. After Mr. Rukirabashaija was launched on bail final January, he fled to Germany.
“He solely understands one language: violence,” Mr. Rukirabashaija mentioned.
Helen Epstein, the writer of “One other High-quality Mess: America, Uganda and the Conflict on Terror,” mentioned Gen. Kainerugaba’s intemperate tweets remind her of the bombastic rhetoric of Mr. Amin, the brutal former ruler of Uganda who killed tens of hundreds of individuals and had threatened to annex components of Kenya.
“Muhoozi has ambitions to run Uganda in the future,” Ms. Epstein mentioned. For now, she added, “he’s a wild card.”
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