KAMPALA (The Thursday Times) — Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement has denied that its leadership rejected a proposal to back army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba as the successor to his father, President Yoweri Museveni, as the general’s public attacks on the vice president sharpen the fight over who will lead the country next.
“That story is completely false,” NRM Secretary General Richard Todwong said in a statement on Thursday, referring to reports that the party’s Central Executive Committee had turned the idea down at a closed-door meeting at State House Entebbe on 10 November. “The Party will officially communicate through the right channel, at the right time, any decision it will have reached on any matter,” he said.
Five party sources who attended the meeting had said a vote was abandoned after several of the committee’s 28 members spoke against the proposal, with four members in favour and three against when it was called off. One participant said the party’s vice chairman for eastern Uganda, Calvin Echodu, urged Museveni to retire his son from the army and give him a civilian post first. Other officials at the meeting have said most members who spoke backed Kainerugaba.
Museveni, 82, has ruled Uganda since 1986, and his current term runs until 2031. In late October he presented senior party leaders with a paper on choosing his successor that suggested his son had the right credentials. Kainerugaba, 52, has said he will run in the 2031 election, and his Patriotic League of Uganda movement has been rallying support.
The general turned on Vice President Jessica Alupo in a string of posts on X on 9 November, accusing her of backing the “treachery” of former deputy army chief Lt Gen Peter Elwelu. “As Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Jessica will be dismissed from our government soon,” he wrote, adding that “we shall arrest Jessica, without hesitation” if she was part of it. His account went offline hours later.
Elwelu was detained on 2 November over allegations that he plotted to destabilise the eastern Teso region. The army said it had recovered 15 guns, military uniforms, and two pickup trucks linked to him, and his family has rejected the allegations. Kainerugaba announced on X that Elwelu had been stripped of his rank and demoted to private, although Ugandan media have reported that military rules do not allow a senior officer to be demoted by a social media post.
At least a dozen generals and senior officers have been detained since April 2025, according to a Ugandan newspaper investigation, and some have since been released. Critics see the arrests as an effort to sideline officers opposed to the general’s ambitions, while others describe them as an anti-corruption drive.
Kainerugaba, who is chief of defence forces, has drawn criticism at home and abroad for inflammatory posts, including threats against opposition leader Bobi Wine, and in June he ordered two media outlets shut.
