OFWONO OPONDO: Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, social media and the locker room banter

In 2000, when Maj. Gen. Abubaker Jeje Odongo was handing over as Army Commander to incoming Maj. Gen. James Kazini, Odongo quipped “As the monkey climbs higher, the more it exposes its bare backside.

Goodluck.” Journalists present, laughed heartly. Kazini had been a good soldier and officer but would run into many troubles especially his escapades in the DRC, later convicted over creating ghost soldiers in UPDF, sacked as army commander, and died at the hands of a mistress Lydia Draru who confessed in court to murdering him during a domestic brawl.

Those are many years passed, and not the era of social media of freewheeler commentary by senior army officers. Elly Tumwine (RIP), Salim Saleh (Caleb Akandwanaho), Greg Mugisha Muntu, Jeje Odongo, and Aronda Nyakairima, as army Commanders, now Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) were never in the media. It was Kazin and a measured Aronda who first made media commentaries to update the public on multiple war fronts in DRC, Sudan and internal rebellion at the time, which many appreciate to-date.

We came in peace, as CDF Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba again finds himself the subject of derisive locker-room banters for his X, (formerly twitter) postings, probably honest, but coming off as an unhelpful bravado, and miscommunication on sensitive diplomatic foreign relations. This, and many previous such postings leave many in stitches, and senior government officials not knowing how to navigate except to just play themselves fools.

US Ambassadors in Uganda have had a track record of meddling in our internal political affairs, especially on elections matters, and William W. Popp is no exception, who should be appropriately rebuked, and for sure, like his predecessors, will not win through arrogance or mischief.

When Muhoozi announced on X, that he had quit the UPDF, many were shocked, but he quickly retracted saying he only wanted to gain a million traction. Then, he posted that the UPDF could overrun Kenyan capital Nairobi within two weeks. A joke many said went too far, which caused quite unease and diplomatic embarrassment in what President Yoweri Museveni later issued a public clarification.

And there have been quite a number of similar tirades on his X handle, among them the claim that God, and his mother, had ordained him a future president of Uganda, and a recent one vowing that no civilian, but only a military or police officer would come after President Museveni.

Having joined the UPDF, where many are ready to pay the ultimate price, and known for its strict conscious discipline, and has climbed ranks through professional trainings and active-duty deployment including combat, many in the public have high expectations of Muhoozi, but could begin to feel let down, although won’t say so publicly.

As the son of Yoweri Museveni, an accomplished revolutionary, liberator, and now president of Uganda for thirty-eight years and still counting on a popular vote and mandate, Muhoozo has a higher burden to carry, and needs to pick his fights properly. UPDF commanders Elly Tumwine, Saleh, Muntu, Odongo, and Aronda, went through the toughest episodes of the controversial anti-insurgency war policy they executed between 1986 until 2006 when armed rebellions were finally neutralised.

Counter-insurgency measures often involved horrendous human rights abuses of highhandedness, arrests and prolonged detentions without trial, and in some cases summary executions, and unexplained deaths, but top officers were never personally singled out because the mistakes were often occasioned by poor command and control, unprofessional conduct and lack of proper logistics unlike today.

Many Ugandans come in peace and goodwill, to offer unsolicited but candid advise to Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, which he is at liberty to ignore, but ought to know that when he loses, many Ugandans could lose too with him, and probably Uganda itself.

The writer, Ofwono Opondo is the Executive Director at the Uganda Media Centre