President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has revealed that it will be up to Ugandans to audit Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba if at all he comes out to stand for President.
In an interview with Kenyan Television KTN, Museveni opened up on succession, his son’s behavior on social media and the alliance with Democratic Party.
The NRM chairman reminded the interviewer that to be a President in Uganda, you are not elected on Twitter but rather voted for into office by the population.
He was responding to concerns about Gen.Muhoozi’s tweets which triggered mixed reactions in the whole East African region when he sarcastically threatened to invade Kenya and takeover Nairobi in two weeks.
Two days after the tweets, Muhoozi was removed from office of Commander of Land Forces, but also promoted to General, a highest military rank in UPDF.
Museveni defended his decision in the interview to promote his son saying, “General Muhoozi is a very good General in the army. If he makes a mistake in one thing and is good at the rest, what do you do?”
He also reminded the interviewer that battles are not fought by reverends, “you have officers who are drunkards but good in fighting. And from day one our strategy is heal, don’t kill the patient.”
But the President assured the nation that he had stopped the “young General” from tweeting about controversial topics.
“Gen. Muhoozi will leave Twitter. We have had this discussion. Twitter, however, is not a problem. The problem is what you are tweeting. If he was tweeting about sports or topics that are not controversial, it wouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
Explaining whether Muhoozi’s tweets are not a “ticking time bomb” and if Ugandans were appreciative of his character, Museveni responded;
“Ugandan leaders are not elected on Twitter. They are elected by the people. Anyone interested in assuming leadership will have to be audited first. Then we can tell if they are a time bomb or not. Africa has got a lot of problems. Tweeting is not one of them.”