The Special Presidential Adviser on Defence and Security, Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh (L) shakes hands with his nephew, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba (R) during a takeover ceremony of the office of the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) by the latter from his predecessor, Gen Wilson Mbasu Mbadi (C), at the UPDF 4th Division headquarters on March 28, 2025. PHOTO/ HANDOUT
Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh, has promised to rein in Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, over social media comments that Western diplomats to the country say are undermining Uganda’s international standing and bilateral relations.
Gen Saleh, who is the chief coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation, a flagship poverty-eradication programme, made the comments yesterday afternoon during a meeting with a delegation of European ambassadors.
The ambassadors, who called on Gen Saleh at his residence in Gulu City, were led by the EU ambassador to Uganda, Mr Jan Sadek. The agenda for the meeting was to discuss strategic economic cooperation to revive northern Uganda, which still carries the developmental challenges of two decades of civil war.
While the officials spoke at length about the political economy of the country, the diplomats also raised concerns about social media comments attributed to the army chief which they warned could undermine diplomatic relations.
The envoys made reference to posts on Gen Muhoozi’s social media handle in which he threatened to arrest them after they held a routine consultative meeting with top officials of the National Unity Platform (NUP) political party last week. “He threatened to take us to his base,” Ambassador Sadek said.
“I think it has created also some security issues because [while] we do not expect actually the UPDF to come and kick us out of the country, we don’t know what his followers may take into their own hands, there are many aspects of this.”
added: “There is also the aspect of brutality against the Opposition, then it is the threats against us.”
The army chief has been roundly criticised for social media posts that appeared to suggest Edward ‘Eddie Mutwe’ Ssebuufu, an NUP official and aide to party leader Robert ‘Bobi Wine’ Kyagulanyi had been tortured in the army chief’s basement. In response, Gen Saleh acknowledged the social media comments by the Chief of Defence Forces but fell short of condemning them. “The CDF, that guy is a funny man because he is the only CDF who didn’t come from Uganda Army, [Uganda National Liberation Army], [National Resistance Army], so for him he is a product of UPDF, an army which was created after 1995,” Gen Saleh said.
“So those guys are crazy they have got their own (ways of doing things), because they are educated, they are very well trained, and so I don’t know what he is...”
After the EU envoys warned that the social media posts could radicalise opposition-leaning youths ahead of the Gen Saleh promised to intervene and pointed out that Gen Muhoozi had also attacked other government institutions like the Uganda Human Rights Commission for questioning him over illegal arrests, detention and torture of opposition supporters.
Gen Saleh, who is President Museveni’s brother, Gen Muhoozi’s uncle, and a former army commander himself, did not specify what action he would take against the CDF. “He is a new type of.....he is a Gen-Z I think, that one we have already tried, he even attacked the Human Rights Commission, but it is not a big issue really because for him he is outside us, you know there was the Kings African Rifle, then Uganda Army then UNLA then NRA and now UPDF,” he said.
EU Ambassador to Uganda Jan Sadek (right) interacts with Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh (centre), during a meeting at his residence in Gulu City on May 21, 2025. PHOTO/TOBBIAS JOLLY OWINY
Individual responsibility
Gen Saleh challenged the EU envoys to hold Gen Muhoozi accountable for his actions as an individual, and not as official government policy or positions. This was after the envoys warned that the social media comments were sabotaging Uganda’s international reputation and could undermine foreign trade with and investment in Uganda. “You are studying him as a character (alone), you see. I think you already, already you are studying him as a character,” Gen Saleh responded.
“Some time back they used to say that you shouldn’t have educated soldiers in the army, which was the early argument because now almost the entire top command is full of degrees, masters, PhDs. I think they have some problems in their heads, but that one we shall manage for you; we shall get him on board, to sort it if has offended you.”
The meeting turned confrontational when Mr Andrew Mwenda, whom Gen Saleh introduced as Gen Muhoozi’s special spokesman, told the ambassadors not to meddle into internal Ugandan political matters.
“Those institutions were transplanted through Congress into societies which were less educated, less literate, very small educated middle class and stuff like that,” Mr Mwenda said, apparently in response to western democratic institutions.
“To assume that how they work in your countries is the way they work in other countries is to make a very big assumption. This country is so structurally different, culturally different.”
Mr Mwenda claimed that the NUP is planning “to organise militarily, to organise not for an election but for an insurrection. They want a uniform. They send people to Kenya, they send people to Congo. They train military drills.
“Mistakes are happening, yes, but where we encounter the problem is if you assume that you have values that are universal and superior, so that you are the ones to think how we should behave and the system should behave like you and live up to your standards,” Mr Mwenda added.
The stand-off was calmed down by Dr David Pulkol, Gen Saleh, and a technical official at Gen Saleh’s office.
“What the ambassadors are asking for [are] two things, mutual respect and mutual support,” Dr Pulkol, a former head of the External Security Organisation, said.
“It’s not too much to ask of anybody that let’s respect each other. Secondly, let’s support each other to make it.” Ambassadors at the meeting included Simone Knapp (Austria), Hughes Chantry (Belgium), Signe Winding Albjerg (Denmark), Xavier Sticker (France), Mathias Schauer (Germany), Frederieke Quispel (Netherlands), Maria Hakansson (Sweden) and Jill Clements (Deputy Ambassador, Ireland).
The meeting was also meant to discuss strategies to ensure a peaceful process for the 2026 General Election. The EU ambassadors are in Gulu City for a three-day working visit that ends on Thursday. During separate engagements on Tuesday and Wednesday with political leaders from the region and Acholi Paramount Chief David Onen Acana II and Gen Saleh, Mr Sadek emphasised the EU’s commitment to continue ploughing more resources into the region and building strategic partnerships to spur its socio-economic recovery.
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Controversial posts
On May 15 at 11: 19, Gen Muhoozi’s handle on the X platform described the EU ambassador’s meeting with NUP leaders at the party’s headquarters in Kampala as an abomination and that the EU in Uganda was playing with fire.
An hour earlier, he had tweeted to attack the Uganda Human Rights Commissions chairperson Mariam Wangadya for directing him to release Mr Edward Rogers Ssebuufu from unlawful detention since April 26, 2025. “If these people value the lives we gave them they must never even think of sending me such a stupid letter again, this is their last warning! I expect an apology,” the post said.
