Arrested generals and a threatened VP fuel succession fever in Uganda
Uganda is facing heightened political tension as 52-year-old army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba conducts a military crackdown amid maneuvering to succeed his father, President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled for four decades. Over the past 15 months, at least a dozen senior officers—including three former military intelligence chiefs—have been detained. Tensions escalated further when Kainerugaba threatened Vice-President Jessica Alupo with dismissal and arrest while proposing to take her post, highlighting growing rifts within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
The crackdown gained prominence with the 2 November detention of former deputy army chief Lt Gen Peter Elwelu. Kainerugaba publicly branded Elwelu a traitor on X and claimed to demote him to Private over an alleged plot to destabilise the eastern Teso region, after which the army seized 15 guns and two vehicles linked to him. Political scientist Dr Gerald Bareebe observed that the arrests target figures resisting the so-called "Muhoozi Project." While a closed-door NRM meeting on 10 November reportedly saw divisions over Kainerugaba's presidential ambitions, party Secretary General Richard Todwong Awany dismissed claims that leadership rejected backing him, maintaining that formal decisions will be communicated at the appropriate time.
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