By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Uganda’s army chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba in the early hours of Friday broke ties with the United States, accusing its embassy of assisting the fugitive opposition leader Bobi Wine, but reversed his position, citing wrong information.
“I want to apologise to our great friends, the United States, for my earlier tweets that I have now deleted,” Kainerugaba, who is also the son of the President Yoweri Museveni, wrote on X.
“I was being fed with wrong information. I have spoken with the US Ambassador to our country, and everything is okay,” he added.
He had previously posted on X that he was cutting ties with the embassy, accusing it of helping to hide Wine, who has been on the run since since the January 15 election that returned his father for the 7th time in office.
Kainerugaba who leads the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), is largely believed to be his father’s preferred successor as the leader of the East African nation.
Museveni, 81, has ruled the country for 40 years, and this month electoral victory gives him seventh term in office.
Wine accused the government of “blatant theft” in the contested polls and fled into hiding, saying the army had raided his home to take him into custody.
Kainerugaba is notable for provocative posts on X.
He had earlier posted, “Because of the present situation where an opposition leader kidnapped himself and is missing, and according to our best intelligence, did all this in coordination with the current administration at the US Embassy in our country (…), we as UPDF suspend ALL cooperation with the current administration at the US Embassy in Kampala.”
He added that this would include its work in Somalia, where Uganda provides the main contingent of forces to the international coalition against Islamist insurgents.
The post was later deleted. Last week, Kainerugaba threatened to hunt down and kill Wine and boasted that his forces had killed 30 of his supporters and arrested 2,000 more since the election.
