By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
There is probably nobody in Uganda who has talked more about the evil of corruption that President Tibuhaburwa Museveni over the last 45 years. For decades, he has portrayed himself as fierce opponent of corruption, vowing to eradicate the scourge from the fabric of Ugandan society (Nabakooza, 2024). More than any other leader of Uganda, he has excelled in erecting institutions to combat corruption. In September 2024, Daily Monitor reported that the President was set to establish two new institutions to combat corruption (Onyango, 2024).
President Tibuhaburwa Museveni has condemned corruption at every opportunity (e.g The State House, 2024) although at one time he was reported in the media saying that corruption builds the economy, and when his Inspector General of Government, Bettie Kamya, sought to use Lifestyle Audit – a method that was successful in erasing corruption in Singapore – he discouraged her by saying that it would compel the corrupt to invest their loot, which was government money, elsewhere instead of in Uganda. However, while addressing CID and DPP and ODPP officers, the President said that corruption is a big problem but easy to fight (The State House, 2024). When he recently showed that he wanted to extend his 40 year-rule by another 5 years beyond the 2026 elections, he evoked corruption as one of the key issues motivating him to do so (e.g., Kiiza, 2025).He said he aims to tackle Uganda’s endemic corruption, which has robbed the country of a fair share of its value (Kiiza, 2025). Pushing the scourge of corruption to the people, perhaps in an effort to shield the high-ranking thieves surrounding him whom he protected against Kamya’s Lifestyle Audit, he said:
“I have decided to come forward and see how to escort the Bazukulu and their parents forward for another five years, and in this time, I want us to really wipe out corruption. This corruption shouldn’t be there because you are in charge. Remember, when NRM came into government, it gave you power to elect people at all levels. Those people you elect should be your overseers in each area. Why do you allow corruption to happen? Why don’t you check to ensure that the health center is working well, the drugs are not stolen, and the PDM money that is sent to the parish is all delivered? This can be done because you have the power. You are the ones who elect LC 1, LC 2, and LC 3. Elect those who can do that on your behalf”.
Although in the past the President himself has used money to bribe people for political gain (which is an aspect of political corruption)he recently appealed to Ugandans to reject bribery ahead of the 2026 elections (The Independent, 2025). There is a school of thought which now believes that the President is co-ruling Uganda with General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
According to the school of thought, the recent action by General Muhoozi-Kainerugaba to order the arrest of fake preachers on the streets of Kampala (Exclusive Bizz, 2025), which would necessarily be a Presidential Order, demonstrates that the General is co-ruler of Uganda with his father.
Although the term “bicameral leadership” refers to a legislative system where the law-making body is divided into two separate chambers, often referred to as houses, and aims to create a system of checks and balances, preventing any single group from wielding too much power, one may characterise the current leadership of Uganda by President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and his son as bicameral but still argue that Uganda is under the family rule of the First Family.
Apparently, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, whoserise through the ranks of the army was fast-tracked bt the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,has been characterised by some critical thinkers and critical analysts as insidious political corruption of the army, is also simultaneously committed to erasing corruption in the army (e.g., Ashaba, 2024; Asiimwe, 2024; Katungulu, 2025; and Ocungi, 2024).
Dr David Namanya (2024), writing in the government Newspaper, New Vision, recognised General Muhoozi Kainerugaba as having been instrumental in combating corruption and graft in Uganda.
Timothy Kalyegira (2025) writing in Daily Monitor cited President Tibuhaburwa Museveni predicting that his [only] publicly known son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, would be tough on corruption.
Jordan Ddungu (2024), writing in The Independent, did not hesitate to characterise General Muhoozi Kainerugaba as alodestar of Anti-Corruption Leadership in Uganda. A dictionary definition of the word “lodestar” is “a star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially the Pole Star”. Ddungu seemed to suggest that the President was already using the CDF to fight corruption in Ugasnda.
There is now no doubt that General Muhoozi Kainerugaba has been a fast-rising star in the military and in Uganda’s politico-military status quo. As I stated above, his rise in the army was fast-tracked by the President. Today he is not only the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF), but he also promotes or demotes other soldiers. And as noted above, he may order anything to take place, including arresting street preachers. The question is: Are all the emerging roles and actions of General Muhoozi Kainerugaba prearranged, incidental or coincidental?
If prearranged, then it was arranged or agreed upon in advance within the First Family, so that no one in the family can oppose or challenge it. If incidental or coincidental, time the best judge, will tell. However, as Liam Taylor (2022) noted, there is so muchMuhoozi Talk, which is intricately intertwined with the Future of Uganda. In fact, according to Liam Taylorthe Muhoozi Talk has been weaponised. In an interview broadcast on 17 October2022, and cited by Liam Taylor (2022),PresidentTibuhaburwa Museveni said that his son “should not and will not” tweet about partisan politics. The next day Kainerugaba tweeted that “I am an adult and NO ONE will ban me from anything”. Muhoozi talk has been weaponised. It could one day push the regime – and Uganda – to the brink (Liam Taylor, 2022).
To weaponise something is to use it in order to deliberately inflict harm on people for whatever gain or to whatever end. If you start pelting your brother with mangoes, he might accuse you of weaponising your fruit salad. When a group or government weaponise something, they take an ordinary object and turn it into a weapon.
From what I have written so far, and if we take it that the Muhoozi Talk has been weaponised, then there are two main targets of the weapon: the Opposition in Uganda and the Corrupt in government and the army.
The weapon has been enhanced by Parliament giving it the UPDF Act 2025, which can be used to target anyone. Th UPDF Act 2025 may be used by th CDF as a military head or as a politico-military. He owns a disguised political party called the Patriotic League of Uganda, which we now know is an offshoot of the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Some of its members hold important positions in the NRM government and in UPDF. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba himself is the CDF under whose powers and on whose orders some Ugandans have been either kidnapped or incarcerated and then released or not released, often showing signs of torture.
Politically, it is important to take note of a Tweet cited by Liam Taylor (2022) in his article “Muhoozi Talk and the Future of Uganda” in Democracy in Africa (DIA):
“In 2026 [the year of the next presidential election] it will be 40 years of the old people in charge. That will change. Those are instructions from Jesus Christ! Our generation will be in charge of this country.”
Before I come to the end of my article, let me address myself to the lingering question;
- Is General Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Lodestar of Anti-Corruption Leadership in Uganda” as Jordan Ddungu put it?
- If so, will he be tough on corruption as President Tibuhaburwa Museveni assured Ugandans?
- Which corruption will General Muhoozi Kainerugaba be tough on: financial corruption, political corruption, ecological corruption, environmental corruption, moral corruption, spiritual corruption, executive corruption, legislative corruption, judicial corruption seed corruption, academic corruption or intellectual corruption, all of which are burdening Uganda?
- Can General Muhoozi Kainerugaba go it alone on corruption in Uganda?
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba – who once put his name to a book about the “tradition of manoeuvre” – is said to be using Twitter to wage a guerrilla war against the old guard. He is even retiring the old guard from the army. In June, 2022 amid friction between Kainerugaba and other generals, President Museveni called a meeting in which he ordered commanding officers not to comment on social media about security or foreign affairs. The first son has flouted that directive shamelessly (Liam Taylor, 2022). He is still using social media to propagate his views and influence politics and the military in Uganda as the CDF.
There is evidence that the CDF will not tolerate corruption, fraud and misappropriation in the army.A few days prior to my writing this article,Uganda was taken by storm when the powerful son of the President, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, started to arrest some top soldiers in the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF), on account of gross corruption. On 1st July, he announced that he had arrested Brigadier-General Cyrus Besigye Bekunda, Chief of Engineering, along with other officers from the Engineers Brigade, after serious allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement within the military’s Engineering Department.
Said General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, “Yesterday I ordered the arrest of Brigadier Bekunda and other officers of the Engineers Brigade. They poisoned, contaminated and desecrated a sacred principle we have always embraced as UPDF – that we can be self-sufficient and efficient. They received money and misused it. Let their punishment serve as a lesson to others”.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba has been more forthright and aggressive against corruption [in the army]than his father who has spent most of his time as President promising to deal with the vice, or condemning it, but taken minimal action against it.
During a speech at the College of Logistics and Engineering (COLE) at Magamaga in February 2024 General Muhoozi Kainerugaba strongly spoke against corruption at the College. In his speech that focused on logistics and inventory management, he reminded his officers that misuse of resources directly affects the army’s ability to protect the country and care for its soldiers. He added, “Any individual or group wth selfish interests – whether corruption, misappropriation of resources, or mismanagement of any kind – must reform immediately or leave the cherished UPDF before they are exposed”.
There is no doubt that General Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s action on corrupt officers is a determined effort to restore public trustin the army and the integrity of the army, and inspire honesty, responsibility and accountability across all ranks of the army, all of which have been plummeting meteorically. However, corruption has not only eaten up the army but it has alsoeaten up the entire ethico-moral fabric of the country.
Therefore, if General-Muhoozi Kainerugaba is to manifest as the true lodestar of anti-corruption leadership in Uganda, he will have to act beyond the realm of the army in order for his ant-corruption leadership to be felt in and influence all the sectors of the economy,or else confront all the different types or forms of corruption in the country. However, he cannot do so because even if he is co-ruling Uganda with his father, as the cited school of thought above claims, he is not the President of Uganda. The President of Uganda is Tibuhaburwa Museveni. The President has the duty and obligation to provide leadership to combat corruption in all its different types and forms rather than pass the crusade over to the voters or to General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. If the President says General Muhoozi Kainerugaba will be tough on corruption, it may suggest that he has failed to combat corruption, and that he has already given up the fight to the CDF who is not, and may not be President of Uganda, although anything is possible in the country .
For God and My Country.
Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula is a Conservation-Biologist and member of Center for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis
