Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) leader!, Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu, has advised the UPDF commander of Land Forces Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba to first retire from the army before he fully gets involved in active politics.
Gen Muntu who once served as the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) of the national army warned that the First Son’s involvement in politics before retiring from the army is setting a bad precedent in the country which those in power claim is full of democracy and follows the national constitution.
The former presidential candidate clarified that Gen Muhoozi is a Ugandan who has got all legitimate rights to run for any political office he wants, but it must be done in a clear, transparent manner, according to the constitution.
“What he does in military uniform should never be done by any other serving officer but it is very absurd that a senior uniformed officer can get involved in certain activities in which other officers in uniform cannot,’’ he said during weekend while at Buwama Village in Butagaya Sub-county, Jinja District during the launch of a Seventh Day Adventist Church and Health Centre.
“We are 45 million people, pay taxes and cannot accept to be manipulated by one human being who has got blood as we do. Nobody is saying Gen Muhoozi cannot run for the presidency. He can if he wants, but he should get out of that (military) uniform.’’
Of late, the First Son has been in the news for involving himself in the politics of Uganda, yet according to the UPDF act, a serving army officer is not supposed to involve himself in partisan politics of any nature.
Of recent during his 48th birthday celebrations, Gen Muhoozi openly expressed his intentions to run for the presidency of this country thus succeeding his father Gen Museveni who has been leading Uganda since 1986.
However, opinion leaders and some legal experts have come out to condemn his unlawful acts and some of them have since dragged him and the current CDF Gen Mbadi Mbasu to court.
Last week, city lawyer Gawaya Tegulle petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging Gen Muhoozi’s utterances and engaging in political activities as he celebrated his 48th birthday last month despite being a serving army officer.
Mr Tegulle claimed in his petition that the acts of Gen Muhoozi dubbed MK@48 included; national and district birthday celebrations, as well as political pronouncements in general and the manifest presidential campaigns in particular on his Twitter handle, @MK [@mkainerugaba] and distribution of T-shirts inscribed with words like “Vote President Muhoozi Kainerugaba, are against Article 208 (2) of the Constitution that provides that UPDF shall be non-partisan, and national in character.
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