The Senator for Nandi County in Kenya, Mr Kiprotich Arap Cherargei, has called on his country’s ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon Uganda’s ambassador to Kenya over what he described as Maj Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s reckless remarks about their country.
According to Cherargei, Gen Kainerugaba’s remarks risk a diplomatic standoff and undermine the spirit of East African unity.
“I expect by morning the ministry of foreign affairs to summon Ugandan ambassador to shed light on Gen. Muhoozi social media outbursts & subsequent apology . This is undermining the spirit of unity of EAC,” he tweeted.
However, the Kenyan government has not publicly commented about the matter.
This came after Gen Kainerugaba, who is the commander of UPDF Land Forces, sent social media into meltdown with controversial tweets, saying it would take Uganda two weeks to capture Kenya.
“Haha! I love my Kenyan relatives. Constitution? Rule of law? You must be joking! For us there is only the Revolution and you will soon learn about it,” he tweeted.
“It wouldn’t take us, my army and me, 2 weeks to capture Nairobi,” he added.
While Kainerugaba later downplayed the matter, describing the tweets as joke, several Kenyans took to social media to express their feelings.
Foreign affairs analyst John Gachie expressed concern about how the commander of the land forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) could utter such reckless and controversial remarks.
Other analysts slammed Muhoozi as a Twitter-happy general who has a history of making controversial posts. A case cited was when he claimed that Uganda supports the revolution in Tigray, a claim Museveni opposed.
Uganda’s top opposition leaders Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye also trolled Kainerugaba over the tweets, which described as irresponsible.
“Dear Kenyans, you now understand what it means to live in Uganda under Museveni and his son (Muhoozi), beneath the senseless tweets, lies a monster who brutalises and tortures our people for fun,” Bobi Wine tweeted.
Besigye said: “History repeats itself? Uganda’s Generals seeking to control Kenyan territory: 46 years after Idi Amin, it’s now Gen Muhoozi! That’s why Kenyans can’t take it lightly.”
Kainerugaba also blamed retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he refers to as his “big brother”, for not contesting for a third term in the August 2022 polls, adding the retired president could have easily won the election.
“My only problem with my big brother is that he did not stand for a third term. We would have won easily,” he wrote on Twitter.
Former president Kenyatta was barred by the Kenyan constitution from contesting for a third term.
Muhoozi has also belittled opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, saying he will never rule Uganda.
“Kabobi should know that we will never allow him to be President of this country!” wrote Muhoozi
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