Muhoozi Kainerugaba, with his wife, Charlotte Nakunda, at the imposition of his fourth star as a general of the Ugandan Army. /
The military man, who has already been dismissed, is the son of the country’s president and is famous for writing on social networks while intoxicated.
The head of the Ugandan Army has assured that his troops will arrive in Nairobi in a couple of weeks. Then he has corrected his statement. No, they will do it in just seven days. Finally, he has deleted these tweets. Some critics of Muhoozi Kainerugaba blame him for the bad habit of writing on social networks while intoxicated. This practice and the threat of invading the neighboring country could ruin his military career. He has already been fired. But the military daredevil is the son of President Yoweri Museveni. Kainerugaba, 48, has just been promoted to general.
The impunity is evident. He has not suffered any reproach for issuing such a frivolous opinion, capable of generating an international crisis. In addition, the official’s statements went further and reviled the artificial borders, the result of colonialism, and even advocated the creation of the East African Federation, a new state that would encompass Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The Kampala government has been quick to point out that its official communications are not carried out via Twitter.
Diplomatic relations between Uganda and Kenya are safe. It wasn’t always like this. The two countries had a near confrontation in the 1980s, when they supported guerrillas opposed to neighboring regimes. Currently, trade is crucial for both economies. Uganda, landlocked, relies on the Kenyan port of Mombasa to carry out its commercial flow and the Nairobi government includes the Ugandan territory in its LAPSSET program, an ambitious communications network with which it intends to provide Ethiopia and Sudan with South privileged routes to the Indian Ocean.
The danger of Ebola
There has been no official response to the Kainerugaba ’boutade’. The biggest concern for Kenya is not an improbable military invasion, but a health one. Uganda is experiencing a particularly virulent Ebola outbreak and travelers crossing borders or traveling by plane have their temperatures taken.
Justice is, in any case, the great victim in both republics. They are two faithful allies of the United States in a region as volatile as the Horn of Africa, and their political stability, sanctioned by the West, sacrifices other demands. The judiciary is shown to be ineffective in resolving the serious accounts pending on both shores of Lake Victoria. President William Ruto, who has just taken office in Nairobi, is dragging through a long succession of unresolved criminal proceedings, including an International Criminal Court proceeding for the post-election incidents of 2007.
The situation is even worse in Uganda. Museveni has been in power for almost 36 years and the last elections were held in a climate of violent intimidation and numerous fatalities. The profile of his son responds to that of the dolphins of the dictatorships, individuals aware of the lack of restrictions. The so-called ‘Muhoozi project’, an alleged operation by his father to make him his successor, responds to that intention and is even assumed by his supporters. The biggest rival is at home and his brother-in-law Odrek Rwabwogo, a successful businessman, also shares those political desires.
without degree
The impetuous tweeter apparently lacks a curriculum in line with the ambitious aspirations. No title is known to the intended heir. His career is linked to his status as commander of the Special Forces Command (SFC), a troop that has intervened in South Sudan, when the civil war raged, and in Congo, where it attacked the bases of the Lord’s Resistance Army and the ADF , the Ugandan Islamist guerrilla.
But this elite body is also being questioned for its alleged link to murders and disappearances in Uganda and Museveni’s son, as its head, is included in a complaint before the International Criminal Court. The possibility that he will be prosecuted seems remote. The SFC has supplied the blue helmets of the African Union and been one of the guarantors of stability in Somalia.
The irony of Kainerugaba does not imply the same ability to accept criticism on the Internet. The novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija mocked, also on Twitter, his obesity and the military training he claims to have received. The author was arrested and subjected to torture. After being released, he fled to Germany where he applied for asylum last February.
Before proclaiming his intention to invade Kenya, the army chief threatened another even more complex operation. Muhoozi stated his intention to occupy Rome. And it is that in one of his delirious tweets he assured that he wanted to marry Giorgia Meloni and pay a hundred cows as a dowry for her and, in the case of being rejected, storm the Eternal City. In his latest contributions on the Net he assures that he is going to enjoy a vacation and asks for suggestions of possible destinations. He also wonders how he will get the approval of the transalpine customs to introduce a hundred cattle.