Muhoozi challenge for UPDF

In late 2012, I received an email request from a journal editor to review a book. The book’s author was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). 

I did not demur. After I received the book, I read it over Christmas in the quiet and tranquil of my ancestral home in Bubulo. In about a week, I had finished reading and writing a draft 3,000-word review essay. 

At the time I read the book and wrote the review, Lieutenant Colonel Muhoozi Kainerugaba had moved from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier, skipping the rank of Colonel. He was commander of the Special Forces Group (SFG), later named Special Forces Command (SFC).

I found the book well written. It had a shaky but defensible and provocative argument. There were noticeable flashes of scholarly rigour and a good dose of compelling historical material, which the author must have accessed by dint of his privilege as a First Son. 

I had both praises and criticisms for the book. That is how any fair-minded and critical reviewers treat a book published by a reputable press.

I started the review by noting that Brig Muhoozi was by far Uganda’s most trained military officer, ‘having attended the world’s finest military colleges. He is a First Son, commander of the elite Special Forces Group, and believed by many to be a possible successor to his father, President Museveni.’ 

Invariably, I continued, ‘Muhoozi is for the most part judged and assessed, both fairly and harshly, by his familial ties to Uganda’s State House.’

I pointed out that critics underline fatherly favouritism at play that had resulted in Brig Muhoozi rising from Officer Cadet to a One-Star General in a short period, about a decade. 

Yet, I hastened to add, ‘a neutral reader with no knowledge of the author’s family background would find [the book] Battles of the Ugandan Resistance a compelling and absorbing narrative, skilfully threaded and cogently argued.
   
Seven years since I subjected the book to a critical scholarly appraisal, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. From One-Star, GenMuhoozi is now a Three-Star officer, a Lieutenant General, tossed from commanding the SFC, but now back in the same position, perhaps with a bigger mandate and a larger armoury, literally. 

This week, our ruler-for-life, Gen Museveni, announced he had appointed Gen Muhoozi as Commandant of the SFC. This came after a few years on semi-katebe – undeployed, but carrying the meaningless title of Senior Presidential Advisor, of which there are so many!

For long, at least since it became apparent Museveni was deliberately sending Muhoozi to prestigious war academies and rushing him through the ranks, there has been suspicion of a ‘Muhoozi project’ – an alleged scheme to groom the son to succeed the father. For many, this is a hard sale. For other observers, with close inside perspective, it is improbable for all sorts of practical reasons.

More than a project for a presidential monarchy, however, Muhoozi presents a bigger problem for the UPDF as an institution and a problem for his own career. 

By law, appointments and promotions in the military come out of the recommendations of an independent body on whose advice the commander in chief acts.

 Under normal circumstances, in a case of clear conflict of interest, in this case a close kin relationship, the appointing authority would recuse him/herself. Can Museveni do that?
The UPDF has evolved and developed in a way that makes it a decent and respectable institution. 

It has the infrastructure, the organisational strength, the personnel and equipment expected of a modern military. 

Yet it remains under the shadow and overbearing control of Gen Museveni as its founder who maintains personal political interests of retaining state power for which he sees the UPDF as his primary tool. On his part, for whatever his competencies and credentials, Gen Muhoozi cannot escape the cynical and pointed conclusion that his newest appointment to yet again command the Special Forces is because the Commander-in-Chief, is his father. 

In fact, Museveni would have done his son a great deal of professional favour had he stepped down a long time ago. Perhaps Gen Muhoozi would hold his own and command the Special Forces on his own merit without prejudice to his being a First Son. 

As it stands, Gen Muhoozi is a conundrum to the UPDF leadership and a big blight to the professionalism of the institution.

Mr Khisa is assistant professor at North Carolina State University (USA).
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