Uganda’s junior dictator Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, being groomed by senior dictator Museveni. Photo: Wikipedia.
[View From Uganda]
Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni, is Uganda’s junior dictator.
He’s officially supposed to lead the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) as commander of land forces. Instead,
he’s caused the army to become restive.
This is primarily due to his reckless tweets on social media. Gen. Kainerugaba, bungles from one crisis to the next. He’s prone to foot-in-mouth sdymdrome. He spends most of his time tweeting inane opinions which have made the Ugandan army look like a collection of toy soldiers. How can an inept officer like Kainerugaba not reflect poorly on the entire force given his powerful position? Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame offered to edit Gen. Kainerugaba’s tweets when he was invited to celebrate the junior dictator’s 48th birthday party celebrations in Entebbe, Uganda.
At the same April dinner celebration, senior dictator Gen. Museveni reportedly advised Kainerugaba to refrain from posting tweets that touch on national and international issues. His tweets are said to be detrimental to Uganda’s interests in the region; some are of incendiary nature at home.
“Army fed up with MK’s birthday events and his openly voicing presidential ambitions, against army rules,” veteran journalist Timothy Kalyegira wrote. “M7, as a result, orders MK not to attend the Kiruhura birthday rally, but anger in the army remains high. A week later, the army is put on the highest level of alertness.”
“So much intrigue going on inside Uganda’s army; UPDF. Sources inside say, CiC [commander in chief] has called for a meeting of all military service chiefs tomorrow. This follows an order issued by Deputy CDF Lt.Gen. Elwelu putting all troops on standby class 1, the highest level of military readiness,” said NBS-TV political analyst Canary Mugume.
Ugandans who thought that the state of alert was a prelude to a shake up in the army were sorely disappointed. Instead of a shake up, Gen. Museveni restored to his usual tactic outside of the use of brute force: bribery.
Accordingly, it was announced, that there shall be a new army salary structure which will see soldiers of the ranks between private and captain paid upwards of 1,000,000 shillings; about $265. Those with ranks from major to brigadier will also get a salary increment of up to 10 million shillings—$2,650—within this new structure. Also proposed is the increment in the salaries of the Generals, beyond the rank of Brigadier, from about Shs 4m to Shs 15m.
This move is reminiscent of the chapter in George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm” where Napoleon hides nine puppies and feeds them until they grow into fierce dogs. Then, when the time is right, Napoleon gives a strange whimper, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars charge into the barn to attack his nemesis Snowball, and chase him off the farm.
The dogs then return to Napoleon’s side, and, with the dogs growling menacingly, Napoleon announces his arbitrary leadership as the farm descends to the bowels of misrule. In similar vein, Gen, Museveni knows that his key constituency is the army and so he is now fattening it up for the kill.
Gen. Museveni is buying allegiance of the military to pave the way for the ascendancy of junior dictator Gen. Kainerugaba to the presidency of Uganda. Kainerugaba—a.k.a Baby Doc—will soon have carte blanche to tweet to his heart’s content, as the army is pruned of all those who are against his impending rule.
All told, Gen. Museveni will hunt down dissidents within the army while bribing soldiers to ensure they fall in line with his Muhoozi Plan to send Uganda back to the dark ages.
Columnist Matogo can be reached via [email protected]
