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Uganda’s president, who has been in workplace for practically 4 many years, has appointed his son as the pinnacle of the nation’s army, fueling long-held suspicions within the East African nation that the chief is making ready his son to sooner or later succeed him.
The president, Yoweri Museveni, stated late Thursday that he had named his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 49, because the nation’s high military commander. Common Kainerugaba had been serving as a senior adviser to his father, and had been taking part in massive rallies throughout the nation to assist place himself as inheritor obvious — whilst specialists say that Mr. Museveni, who’s 79, is unlikely to relinquish energy throughout his lifetime.
Common Kainerugaba had burst into the worldwide limelight in recent times for his erratic, late-night tweets. At the very least one of many common’s closest confidants was additionally named to a high cupboard place.
Mr. Museveni, a six-term president, is predicted to run in Uganda’s subsequent elections, in 2026, and to proceed tightening his grip over the plush, landlocked nation. However his advancing age and tensions amongst his shut associates within the army and governing get together have rekindled speak about an alleged plan from a decade in the past wherein it was claimed that he was grooming his son for energy.
Mr. Museveni has repeatedly denied such a plan, which is usually known as the “Muhoozi Challenge.”
Since coming to energy in 1986, Mr. Museveni, a key Western ally, has dominated Uganda with an iron fist, cracking down on press freedom, jailing opposition leaders and having his critics tortured. Mr. Museveni, his son and different high Ugandan officers have been accused of crimes in opposition to humanity in a submission filed final yr on the Worldwide Legal Court docket.
Mr. Museveni additionally signed a extensively condemned anti-gay regulation final yr that included a life sentence for anybody partaking in homosexual intercourse and was thought-about among the many harshest on the earth. In August, the United Nations human rights workplace in Uganda closed after the federal government declined to resume an settlement permitting it to operate within the nation.
Common Kainerugaba is the eldest little one and solely son of Mr. Museveni, who additionally has three daughters. His first identify, Muhoozi, means “the avenger,” the president has stated. The son, who attended army faculties in america and Britain, has additionally served because the commander of the Ugandan army’s land forces and because the head of an elite unit of particular forces answerable for defending Mr. Museveni and his pursuits.
In current months, Common Kainerugaba has been attempting to shine his picture and consolidate his help nationwide. He has been assembly politicians and attending rallies, actions that critics say violate guidelines barring active-duty military officers in Uganda from taking part in politics.
For months now, he has avoided sharing provocative tweets, which up to now have typically angered his father. He has additionally assumed the chairmanship of the Patriotic League of Uganda, a nonpartisan group that he says goals to foster nationwide pleasure.
On Friday, some Ugandan observers stated that Common Kainerugaba’s appointment allowed Mr. Museveni not solely to watch the military intently but additionally to maintain everybody guessing as succession politics brew and the election attracts nearer.
“It appears to place the son in a method that’s strategic in order that he can run the household property in case the daddy was to go on,” Michael Mutyaba, a Ugandan researcher and political analyst, stated in a phone interview.
The president, Mr. Mutyaba added, “likes to remain unpredictable, which is a method he retains energy.”
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