Uganda’s army chief, who is the son of newly re-elected President Yoweri Museveni, threatened Tuesday to hunt down and kill opposition leader Bobi Wine, who is in hiding after losing last week’s election.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 51, has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father, who was declared winner of a seventh term as president on Saturday at the age of 81 in a vote declared a “sham” by the opposition.
Kainerugaba, who is typically referred to by his first name in Uganda, was unusually quiet during the electoral campaign but returned to his habitually provocative online postings soon after the results.
“We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week,” Kainerugaba wrote on X, referring to the opposition National Unity Platform, led by Wine, the singer-turned-politician who came second in the ballot.
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“I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi,” he added, using his nickname for the opposition leader.
Wine has gone into hiding since the vote, accusing the security forces of raiding his home and attempting to capture him. His whereabouts have been unknown since Saturday.
“I’m giving him exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the Police,” Kainerugaba wrote. “If he doesn’t we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly.”
In his own posts, Wine criticised Kainerugaba’s “threats to kill me” and demanded the military vacate his compound, adding: “My wife and people are not safe.”
Many Ugandans enjoy the army chief’s outrageous posts — that last year included threats to behead Wine — and see him as the natural successor to his father, who has ruled the country for 40 years.
“He is my next president. He is a good man. I love him so much,” said Natasha Alinitwe, a 25-year-old supporter at a pro-government rally in Kampala on Saturday as the election results were announced.
Like many around her in the crowd, she was sporting a T-shirt with Kainerugaba’s face.
Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, made of point of doing press-ups on camera during the Covid pandemic.
Kainerugaba has often talked about taking over, and even announced in 2023 that he would run in the next presidential election.
“Enough of the old people ruling us. Dominating us. It’s time for our generation to shine,” he wrote at the time.
Kainerugaba was born in Tanzania while his father was in exile and has three sisters.
He studied at foreign military academies, including Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst, and was appointed head of the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces in March 2024.
Analysts say this was a move by his father to curb his political ambitions after his 2023 announcement, later retracted, that he intended to run.
Discussing the succession is taboo.
Two newspapers and two radio stations were briefly shut down in 2013 after publishing a secret government memo about “Project Muhoozi”, reportedly about preparing his rise to power.
Many of Museveni’s former allies have fallen out with the president over his son’s antics — including a threat to invade neighbouring Kenya, which he later claimed was a joke, but which forced his father into an apology.
“President Museveni seems at times… to have given signals that his son will be the successor, but then to change his mind,” said Kristof Titeca, a Uganda specialist at Belgium’s University of Antwerp.
“A major reason is Muhoozi’s behaviour, or statements, which have been unpredictable and often quite radical,” he said.
Other antics are clearly not jokes. Last year, Kainerugaba boasted online of having kidnapped Wine’s head of security “like a grasshopper” and torturing him in his basement.
He also suspended all military cooperation with Germany after that country’s diplomat was accused of criticising his online behaviour.
Museveni’s brother, Salim Saleh, a former military officer, is seen in some quarters as a possible alternative to Kainerugaba, though he has been implicated in major corruption scandals in the past.
The coming weeks will be crucial, Titeca said, in seeing which of the two has the upper hand.
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Uganda’s army chief, who is the son of newly re-elected President Yoweri Museveni, threatened Tuesday to hunt down and kill opposition leader Bobi Wine, who is in hiding after losing last week’s election.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 51, has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father, who was declared winner of a seventh term as president on Saturday at the age of 81 in a vote declared a “sham” by the opposition.
Kainerugaba, who is typically referred to by his first name in Uganda, was unusually quiet during the electoral campaign but returned to his habitually provocative online postings soon after the results.
“We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week,” Kainerugaba wrote on X, referring to the opposition National Unity Platform, led by Wine, the singer-turned-politician who came second in the ballot.
Follow The Standard
channel
on WhatsApp
“I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi,” he added, using his nickname for the opposition leader.
Wine has gone into hiding since the vote, accusing the security forces of raiding his home and
attempting to capture him
. His whereabouts have been unknown since Saturday.
“I’m giving him exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the Police,” Kainerugaba wrote. “If he doesn’t we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly.”
In his own posts, Wine criticised Kainerugaba’s “threats to kill me” and demanded the military vacate his compound, adding: “My wife and people are not safe.”
Many Ugandans enjoy the army chief’s outrageous posts — that last year included threats to behead Wine — and see him as the natural successor to his father, who has ruled the country for 40 years.
“He is my next president. He is a good man. I love him so much,” said Natasha Alinitwe, a 25-year-old supporter at a pro-government rally in Kampala on Saturday as the election results were announced.
Like many around her in the crowd, she was sporting a T-shirt with Kainerugaba’s face.
Museveni, a former guerrilla fighter who seized power in 1986, made of point of doing press-ups on camera during the Covid pandemic.
Kainerugaba has often talked about taking over, and even announced in 2023 that he would run in the next presidential election.
“Enough of the old people ruling us. Dominating us. It’s time for our generation to shine,” he wrote at the time.
Kainerugaba was born in Tanzania while his father was in exile and has three sisters.
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He studied at foreign military academies, including Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst, and was appointed head of the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces in March 2024.
Analysts say this was a move by his father to curb his political ambitions after his 2023 announcement, later retracted, that he intended to run.
Discussing the succession is taboo.
Two newspapers and two radio stations were briefly shut down in 2013 after publishing a secret government memo about “Project Muhoozi”, reportedly about preparing his rise to power.
Many of Museveni’s former allies have fallen out with the president over his son’s antics — including a threat to invade neighbouring Kenya, which he later claimed was a joke, but which forced his father into an apology.
“President Museveni seems at times… to have given signals that his son will be the successor, but then to change his mind,” said Kristof Titeca, a Uganda specialist at Belgium’s University of Antwerp.
“A major reason is Muhoozi’s behaviour, or statements, which have been unpredictable and often quite radical,” he said.
Other antics are clearly not jokes. Last year, Kainerugaba boasted online of having kidnapped Wine’s head of security “like a grasshopper” and torturing him in his basement.
He also suspended all military cooperation with Germany after that country’s diplomat was accused of criticising his online behaviour.
Museveni’s brother, Salim Saleh, a former military officer, is seen in some quarters as a possible alternative to Kainerugaba, though he has been implicated in major corruption scandals in the past.
The coming weeks will be crucial, Titeca said, in seeing which of the two has the upper hand.
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By AFP