Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has apologized to Kenyans following his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s repugnant tweets threatening to invade Kenya and take over its Capital, Nairobi in two weeks.
Gen. Muhoozi fired unprovoked tweets that caused a social media storm, and triggering a diplomatic quagmire. “Haha! I love my Kenyan relatives. Constitution? Rule of law? You must be joking! For us there is only the Revolution and you will soon learn about it,” one of his tweets reads.
His father has considered it proper to apologise. “I ask our Kenyan brothers and sisters to forgive us for tweets sent by General Muhoozi, former Commander of Land Forces here, regarding the election matters in that great country. It is not correct for Public officers, be they civilian or military, to comment or interfere in any way, in the internal affairs of brother countries,” Museveni said in a statement.
Museveni said that the only available legitimate forum for public officials to utter opinions is the Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union or “confidential interactions among us or EAC and AU fora – not public comments.”
Gen. Muhoozi continued with his obnoxious tweets mocking the Kenyan army. “I would never beat up the Kenyan army because my father told me never to attempt it! So our people in Kenya should relax!,” he said in one of his tweets that triggered verbal attacks from Kenyans.
His father did not enjoy the tweets nor the reactions from Kenyans. He immediately fired him from his position as Commander of Land Forces, but promoted him to a full General.
“Why, then, promote him to full General after these comments? This is because this mistake is one aspect where he has acted negatively as a Public officer. There are, however, many other positive contributions the General has made and can still make,” Museveni said in the statement.
“Very sorry, ndugu zetu Wakenya. Also sorry to the Ugandans who could have been annoyed by one of their officials meddling in the affairs of brother Kenya. I know for a fact that General Muhoozi is a passionate PanAfricanist,” the satement said. “,,,This is a time-tested formula – discourage the negative and encourage the positive…”
However, Museveni added, “the correct method for PanAfricanists is confidential interactions or using the available fora (EAC and AU), especially if you are a Public officer. I have conveyed all those views confidentially to H.E. Ruto, the President of Kenya.”
