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Uganda’s president, who has been in workplace for practically 4 a long time, has appointed his son as the top of the nation’s army, fueling long-held suspicions within the East African nation that the chief is getting ready his son to someday succeed him.
The president, Yoweri Museveni, stated late Thursday that he had named his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 49, because the nation’s prime military commander. Basic Kainerugaba had been serving as a senior adviser to his father, and had been collaborating in giant rallies throughout the nation to assist place himself as inheritor obvious — at the same time as consultants say that Mr. Museveni, who’s 79, is unlikely to relinquish energy throughout his lifetime.
Basic Kainerugaba had burst into the worldwide limelight lately for his erratic, late-night tweets. At the very least one of many common’s closest confidants was additionally named to a prime 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 occasion have rekindled discuss an alleged plan from a decade in the past by which 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 Venture.”
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 prime Ugandan officers have been accused of crimes in opposition to humanity in a submission filed final 12 months on the Worldwide Prison Courtroom.
Mr. Museveni additionally signed a extensively condemned anti-gay regulation final 12 months that included a life sentence for anybody partaking in homosexual intercourse and was thought of among the many harshest on the planet. 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.
Basic Kainerugaba is the eldest youngster 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 liable for defending Mr. Museveni and his pursuits.
In latest months, Basic Kainerugaba has been making an attempt 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 collaborating in politics.
For months now, he has shunned sharing provocative tweets, which previously 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 delight.
On Friday, some Ugandan observers stated that Basic Kainerugaba’s appointment allowed Mr. Museveni not solely to watch the military carefully but in addition 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 move 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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