First Son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has openly expressed his support for former minister Capt Francis Babu’s son Cedric’s Kampala Central MP bid.
Lt Gen Kainerugaba, also President Museveni’s senior advisor on special operations, recently made his support of Cedric Babu’s bid public.
“Me and my brother (Cedric Babu), all those who believe in a Uganda that is greater than tribe and political orientation will support him for MP Kampala Central. The future of Uganda is in a new generation that knows no tribe or language,” Kainerugaba wrote.
Gender, labour and social development minister Frank Tumwebaze welcomed Muhoozi’s support of Babu’s parliamentary bid in which he seeks to unseat Mohammed Nsereko.
“Great guy Cedric. He has my prayers and support too. Thank you MK [Muhoozi Kainerugaba] for bolstering the will and ambitions of generational comrades,” Tumwebaze wrote.
Babu thanked Kainerugaba for his support “always.”
But some people have argued that the first son should not have openly involved himself in partisan politics.
Kainerugaba’s critics include Issa Kato, a former coordinator of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM Poor Youth), who says the first son did “break the party structure by endorsing a candidate.”
Kato also believes that the presidential advisor’s statements were “reckless.”
“Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is still a serving army officer in the Ugandan army and a Presidential adviser on special assignments,” noted Kato.
Kato further argues that Kainerugaba’s statement “could [people] believe that such a candidate is the most favored candidate of the party yet this is what the party chairman who is the president of the republic of Uganda has refused to endorse for his entire life a hand-picked candidate and successor.”
“The Party chairman His Excellency the President has always referred questions and people who have agitated for the successor to leave it to the people to choose their own desired leaders as enshrined in the Constitution of Uganda,” he further noted.
“To a layman, you could think this is a double-edged statement for a son who has walked in the Ugandan Political corridors contravenes what we have grown to believe and trusted.”
For years now, political observers have argued that Kainerugaba is building a base of allies to help him take over power from his father Museveni, in power since 1986.
Although Kainerugaba and Museveni previously denied the existence of ‘Muhoozi Project’ as former spymaster Gen David Tinyefuuza (Sejusa) claimed seven years ago, the first son recently said those who concocted the project idea had hoped to sink him but, instead, his generation had turned the plot into a blessing.
“Some evil people coined this phrase to try and destroy us! But trust my generation to convert every curse into a blessing! Thank you Ugandans!” Muhoozi captioned a photo of himself in a yellow hooded jumper with the words ‘Muhoozi Project’ in March 2020.
A group of people calling itself Friends and Supporters of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has been rooting for the first son. Some of them even suggest that Kainerugaba should make an attempt at the presidency in 2026.
