BY DAVID MAFABI
MBALE
President Museveni has explained the circumstances under which he promoted Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba despite having dropped him from the position of UPDF commander for Land Forces.
In a mini- reshuffle announced on Tuesday, President Museveni, as the commander in chief of the armed forces replaced Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba with Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga as the Land Forces Commander.
This stemmed from Gen Muhoozi’s controversial tweets in which he said he would capture Kenya’s capital Nairobi in two weeks.
The comments have since left many people’s tongues wagging as they threatened to create a diplomatic row between the two brotherly and neighbouring countries.
However, members of the public have since questioned the rationale behind promoting Gen Muhoozi who had earlier been “punished” for his controversial tweets against a neighbouring country.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, President Museveni defended the move.
“Why, then, promote him to full General after these comments? This is because this mistake is one aspect where he has acted negatively as a public officer,” Museveni said.
“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.”
The Tuesday promotion saw Gen Muhoozi at 48 become the youngest serving four-star general of the UPDF.
He has since said he will celebrate the feat by throwing a street bash along Kampala road in a few days to come.
President Museveni apologises for Gen Muhoozi’s tweets
And in a rare occurrence, President Museveni has since then apologised to Kenya for the embarrassment caused by tweets by the First Son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In a statement released on Wednesday, President Museveni apologized for the inconvenience the tweets caused Kenyans.
“I ask our Kenyan brothers and sisters 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,” Museveni said.
According to the president, the only available legitimate forum is the Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union or confidential interactions among heads of state, the East African Community, and the African Union, and not public comments like Muhoozi did.
He insisted that although Gen Muhoozi is a “passionate Pan- Africanist”, social media was not the correct forum for discussing such matters, especially for a public officer.
“Very sorry, ndugu zetu Wakenya. Also sorry to the Ugandans who could have been annoyed by one of their officials meddling in the affairs of brother Kenya.”
Museveni said he has since conveyed all these views confidentially to President Ruto. Ends
