The First Son also UPDF Commander of Land Forces, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has told off Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu to stay in his lane and that he doesn’t need any from of wise counsel as far as his retirement from the army and political ambitions are concerned.
Of late, Gen Muntu, the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) leader has been criticizing Gen Muhoozi’s conduct as a top military officer ever since he started taking part in partisan politics and showing indicators that he was ready to succeed his father Gen Yoweri Museveni as Uganda’s next President.
As the UPDF former Chief of Defence Force (CDF) and an elder, Gen Muntu advised the First Son to first retire from the army before officially joing politics. This, Muntu said would help to preserve the good image of UPDF which is supposed to be non-partisan.
He warned that Muhoozi’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.
“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. Nobody is saying Gen Muhoozi cannot run for the presidency. He can if he wants, but he should get out of that (military) uniform,” he said.
On Monday this week, Gen Muntu went on his Twitter handle and again advised Gen Muhoozi to seek permission and leave the army in order to join Politics.
“Great. Use the same insight to ask the CIC to retire you from the Army as you pursue your political Agenda. It is legitimate. However, respect the officers & men in Uniform. NRA/ UPDF has been built through many sacrifices. Welcome to politics but GET OUT of uniform first,” reads the tweet.
However, the furious Gen Muhoozi did not take the piece of advice in good faith. On Thursday evening, he retaliated and told Gen Muntu TO that his opinion doesn’t matter.
“General Greg, first of all, habari ya siku mingi sana? I hope you are well? Secondly, me, my father and practically everybody else in UPDF do not require your ‘Insight’ into anything. Please keep it for yourself and your small collapsing political party,” reads the tweet.
He also went ahead to wonder why Gen Muntu was appointed CDF after his Uncle Gen Saleh leaving clever and intelligent people like Jet Tumwebaze who was a colonel at that time. “I wish my father had made Colonel Jet Mwebaze, Army Commander after Afande Saleh in 1989. He was a great commander for sure!”
For the record, Gen Muntu served as the Commander of the UPDF from 1989 to 1998 when the National Resistance Army was renamed the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), He replaced Gen Salim Saleh.
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