Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni, had been in charge of the nation’s ground forces until Tuesday, when the defense ministry of Uganda stated that he had been replaced by another military official.
In place of Kainerugaba, Lt. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga “has been designated commander of the ground forces,” according to a government statement.
The president’s 48-year-old son was also given a promotion to the rank of general, according to the ministry, a move that analysts contacted by AFP described as merely cosmetic.
Shortly after Kainerugaba stirred a controversy by tweeting that he was prepared to attack Kenya, the Defense Ministry made its choice.
“It wouldn’t take me and my army two weeks to capture Nairobi,” he said in the tweet Monday night, before doing an about-face in a second.
“I will never beat the Kenyan army because my father told me never to attempt it! So our people in Kenya should relax!”
Uganda’s foreign ministry released a statement expressing its “commitment to good neighborliness (and) peaceful coexistence”) with Kenya in response to the uproar on social media.
In the 2026 election, Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda since 1986, might run once more.
