Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of the ageing leader of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has announced that he plans to run for president in 2026. This is the first time the outspoken army general has provided a timetable for succeeding his father, who has controlled the East African nation for 37 years.
“You have wanted me to say it forever! Okay, in the name of Jesus Christ my God, in the name of all the young people of Uganda and the world and in the name of our great revolution, I will stand for the Presidency in 2026,” Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba wrote on Twitter late on Wednesday.
The opposition in Uganda has long accused Museveni of trying to install a monarchy on the country and of preparing Kainerugaba to succeed him. Those charges have been refuted by Museveni.
The 48-year-old general, who serves as a presidential adviser, is well known for sending out contentious tweets that have caused him to get criticism from his father.
In another tweet on Wednesday, he expressed his impatience at waiting so long to replace his father. “The Prime Minister of UK is 42 years old, the Prime Minister of Finland is 37 years. Some of us are hitting 50 years old. We are tired of waiting forever,” he said.
The tweets about Kainerugaba’s presidential ambitions were promptly deleted, but he afterwards retweeted quotes about them.
He had previously been in charge of the land forces, but he was demoted after threatening to attack Kenya, which he subsequently claimed was a joke.
A series of diplomatic encounters between the two nations in Nairobi and Kampala were sparked by the tweets, along with a rare presidential apologies.
Nonetheless, he also played a significant role in mending tense ties between Uganda and its neighbor Rwanda, putting an end to a dispute between Museveni and his former pupil Paul Kagame, whom Kainerugaba refers to as his uncle, in 2022.