A new reign is looming in Uganda. For nearly four decades, no one dared challenge the leadership of 78-year-old Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986 thanks to constant harassment of the opposition, victories in elections of questionable transparency and the favor of military, true guarantors of their power. Bye now.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, eldest son of the eternal Ugandan president, threatens his father’s throne.
With extensive military training after passing through prestigious centers in Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, 48-year-old Muhoozi – which means “the avenger” – is asking to succeed Museveni.
Astute and long-tongued on social media, where he is very popular – more than 736,000 followers on Twitter – he himself took it upon himself to place himself in the spotlight a few weeks ago following a series of tweets, which later deleted. Despite being ephemeral, the messages carried hemlock. “How many of you agree with me – he asked his followers – that our time has come? Enough of old men ruling us. That dominate us It’s time for our generation to shine. Retweet and like.†Shortly before, he had confirmed in another message his desire to take command. “In the name of Jesus Christ, my God, and in the name of the youth of Uganda and the world and in the name of our great revolution, I will run for the presidency in 2026.”
His messages were not so much a direct criticism of his father, with whom he maintains a good relationship and whom he even visited for Easter with his family, but a declaration of war on the bureaucratic and military leadership that dominates the party in power , the National Resistance Movement (MRN), founded precisely by Museveni.
From the upper echelons they look with suspicion at Muhoozi’s presidential aspirations and insist that Museveni will stand in the elections in three years, despite the fact that he would then be 81 years old in one of the countries with the youngest population in the world, since the average Uganda’s age is 16 years. The youth will be part of the battle in the elections because 78% of Ugandans were not born when Museveni and his trusted elite dethroned the dictator Obote and wrapped themselves in the aura of liberators. Most Ugandans associate Museveni with an iron fist and not with freedom.
That is why Muhoozi’s movements are strategist: following the rise and popularity of the rapper Bobi Wine, main figure of the opposition and a kind of African Che Guevara for the new generations, he founded the MK Movement to distance- se of the “elderly” MRN, which he described at the end of the year as “the most reactionary party in the world”.
His intention to sell himself as a rebel is added to a provocative attitude that recalls the outbursts of the former president of the United States Donald Trump. A few months ago he joked about offering 100 cows for Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. “In our culture, you give a cow to the woman you like,” he wrote.
In some cases, his verbal incontinence has earned him a displeasure. In October, a tweet claiming that the Ugandan army would be able to take Kenya’s capital Nairobi in two weeks sparked a diplomatic row that forced his father to remove him as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
This gesture, pushed by the indignation of the African neighbor but also by the internal powers that saw a loophole from which to attack the prince of Uganda, did not deter Muhoozi, who has good international relations both in the West and the Middle East or with neighboring Rwanda.
Also, and above all, with Russia. Muhoozi assured at the end of March that the West was wasting its time with its “propaganda” in favor of Ukraine and offered to send troops from Uganda if one day Russia was threatened “by imperialism”. “Call me a Putinist if you want,” he wrote, “but we, Uganda, will send soldiers to defend Moscow if it is ever threatened by the imperialists!” A self-confessed admirer of President Putin, Muhoozi added new proclamations. “With the acceptance of the Russian leaders, we will tour the battlefield of Stalingrad!”
After the eternal reign of Museveni, Uganda is preparing for the arrival of a new king.
