President Yoweri Museveni has issued an apology to the Kenyan government and the Kenyan people over tweets by his son and former commander of the UPDF land forces about capturing Nairobi.
The first son through his Twitter said that “It wouldn’t take us, my army and me, 2 weeks to capture Nairobi,” a tweet that raised dust among Ugandans and Kenyans on Twitter considering he was still the commander of Land Forces by the time he made the statement.
He also blamed former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for his failure to run for the third term of office saying he would have won easily. He further bashed the Kenyan system of following the constitution and rule of law calling it a joke. “For us there is only the Revolution and you will soon learn about it,” he said.
“I ask our Kenyan brothers and sisters to forgive us for tweets sent by General Muhoozi, former Commander of Land Forces here [Twitter], 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,” the president wrote in a statement received by The Tower Post.
“The only available legitimate forum is the Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union or confidential interactions among us or EAC and AU fora –not public comments,” Museveni added.
Museveni’s apology comes a day after he stripped Muhoozi of his UPDF Land Forces Command before promoting him from Lieutenant General to full General.
Why Promote him?
Museveni explained in the statement that despite the one time where his son acted inappropriately, there are, many other positive contributions the General has made and can still make to the country.
“This is a time-tested formula –discourage the negative and encourage the positive. 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 Pan-Africanist. However, the correct method for Pan-Africanists 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.”