Lt-Gen Muhoozi in Rwanda on second trip in two months
Lt-Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba when he visited Kigali to meet President Paul Kagame. He arrived in Kigali on Monday for his second visit to Rwanda in two months.
President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Lt-Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, arrived in Rwanda's capital Kigali on Monday, his second trip to the neighbouring country in less than two months.
The ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday that it's the presidential adviser’s second “private visit” to Rwanda.
This comes seven weeks after Lt-Gen Kainerugaba met President Paul Kagame in Kigali on a mission to restore bilateral relations.
Lt-Gen Kainerugaba’s visit at the time was followed by Rwanda’s announcement that the Uganda-Rwanda border, closed since 2019, would reopen on January 31.
“After a long discussion with my uncle, President Kagame, this morning we have agreed that I will return to Kigali in the coming days to sort out all outstanding issues between Uganda and Rwanda,” Lt-Gen Kainerugaba tweeted on February 28.
The visit also comes a day after some young people in the Busoga sub-region petitioned Lt-Gen Kainerugaba to vie for president in 2026, a week after he tweeted that he was retiring from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) after 28 years.
Ms Harriet Wako, a nurse at Mayuge Health Centre IV, at the weekend handed over the petition to President Museveni’s younger brother, Michael Toyota, during the 2022 motorsport circuit at Nakalama in Iganga district.
While handing over the petition, Ms Wako said she wanted Gen Kainerugaba to stand for president in 2026 “to specifically improve on the health sector and the general livelihood”.
“President Museveni has done great work, but most of the people he is working with are ‘worn out’; we are hoping that if he [Lt-Gen Kainerugaba] stands, he will improve on and drive his father’s legacy forward,” she said to thunderous applause from several supporters donning yellow T-shirts emblazoned with ‘MK Project’.
Mr Ben Atutukwasa, the vice-chairperson of the ‘project’, said that young people had decided to come together and call upon Lt-Gen Kainerugaba to stand and maintain the prevailing peace and security in Uganda.
He said: “[Lt-Gen Kainerugaba] is the only person to reconcile us with Rwanda after ‘several other leaders’ had failed.”
Ms Jacquie Aguram Namuyonga, the secretary-general of the ‘project’, said: “We are asking [Lt-Gen Kainerugaba] to stand, not because President Museveni is tired, but because [Lt-Gen Kainerugaba) can manage and is one of us.
Receiving the petition, Mr Toyota said he didn’t know the entire contents of the message but will deliver it to Lt-Gen Kainerugaba. “The lady [Ms Wako], however, said she will mobilise support for [Lt-Gen Kainerugaba] if he decides to stand in 2026.”
Lt-Gen Kainerugaba has repeatedly dismissed as “baseless” and “non-existent” suggestions that he is being groomed to succeed his father as president, adding that he would go through the right procedure if he ever wanted to become president.
