Uganda: Promotion of Museveni's son - full text
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On March 1, Uganda's main opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), accused President Yoweri Museveni of preparing his son to succeed him. Several of President Museveni's relatives held senior positions in his administration. The president's son, Lt Col Kainerugaba Muhoozi, who already commanded a special forces unit, had recently been given control of a new, powerful elite presidential guard force. FDC spokesman Hussein Kyanjo was quoted as saying that Museveni was "making the Ugandan presidency a monarchical affair and is clearly anointing his son to succeed him". However, army spokesman Felix Kulaigye dismissed such criticism, insisting that Muhoozi was "an individual Ugandan with rights including contesting for the presidency if he wants".
Immediate Context
According to a report broadcast on the army's radio station on Feb. 26, an "expanded and more robust elite military unit" to be led by the president's son had been created. The former Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) unit would fall under the control of Muhoozi's Special Forces (SF), hitherto a much smaller though fully-fledged force with commando, paratrooper, air, infantry and artillery capabilities. The changes were announced by Museveni, who also served as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The army radio report said that Lt-Col Muhoozi had additionally been charged with providing security to his father during the 2011 election campaign. Museveni, who had served as president since 1986, was expected to contest the elections scheduled to be held in early 2011. It was also reported that Muhoozi's troops would also have the extra duties of protecting the country's strategic assets including newly discovered oil wells in the western region bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In September 2009, Tullow Oil, the UK-based oil and gas exploration and production business, had confirmed that it made the largest oil discovery yet in the Lake Albert region of Uganda. In August 2007, there had been serious border tension between Uganda and the DRC in connection with oil exploration in the disputed Rukwanzi Island on Lake Albert.
Muhoozi had joined the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) in 2001 after studying at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK. He passed out at the rank of lieutenant and deployed in the PGB before he was controversially promoted to the rank of major by Libyan leader Moamer al-Kadhafi later in 2001. While he was in the PGB, he commanded the motorised unit of the presidential guards until 2008 when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed the commander of Special Forces. Muhoozi's latest active duty field assignment was in late 2008 when he formed part of the leadership of the Ugandan contingent of the taskforce that was mobilised to launch a pre-emptive strike on the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) camps in the Garamba national park in the north-eastern DRC.
Lt-Col Muhoozi was only one of a number of President Museveni's relatives to hold high-ranking posts in his administration or in the military. Gen. Salim Saleh (born Caleb Akandwanaho), Museveni's younger half-brother, serves as a presidential adviser on military affairs, while the president's wife, Janet Museveni, serves as minister of state for Karamoja region. The president's brother-in-law, Sam Kutesa, serves as foreign affairs minister.
Ugandan opposition concerns over the possibility of Muhoozi succeeding Museveni raised wider disquiet over the issue of political succession elsewhere in Africa. President Laurent-Désiré Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was assassinated in January 2001 and was swiftly replaced as president by Joseph Kabila. In Togo, President Gnassingbé Eyadema died in February 2005 and within minutes of his death, the country's military high command had declared one of his many sons, Faure Gnassingbé, as the new president. Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba was sworn in as the new president of Gabon in October 2009, replacing his father, Omar Bongo, who had died in June. Karim Wade, the son of President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, was reportedly being groomed to succeed his father, especially after his appointment as a minister of state in May 2009.
In Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who was reportedly suffering from cancer, was reportedly fighting to secure the appointment of his first-born son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, minister of agriculture and forests since 2004, as his successor. Gamal Mubarak, the son of Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, was widely regarded as one of the main candidates to succeed his ageing father as president of Egypt. Sayf al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader al-Kadhafi, has played a prominent role within Libya's political landscape for the past decade as head of the Al-Kadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation, but he has insisted that succeeding his father would be inconsistent with Libya's progressive system. In Tunisia, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's son-in-law, Mohamed Sakhr Materi, seemed to be in the process of being groomed for power, having won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the bicameral legislature) in elections held in October 2009.
Reaction and Outlook
Increased speculation over the political succession in Uganda came at a time of growing concern over the conduct of the 2011 presidential and legislative elections. In December 2009, Vincent De Visscher, the head of the European Commission's (EC) delegation in Uganda, had expressed concern over growing fears of armed conflict in the wake of a disputed 2011 election result after opposition politicians had said the government was planning a violent campaign. De Visscher noted that there had been a "ratcheting up of the rhetoric" in recent weeks and said that it was "important to cool down".
Ambassador de Visscher's comments came just months after serious rioting had erupted in the capital, Kampala. The rioting that left over 20 Ugandans dead and 50 injured exposed the tension between state control and the ambitions of the traditional Buganda kingdom and also raised concerns that the forthcoming elections could expose deep tribal rifts. The violence had erupted when supporters of Ronald Mutebi, the king, or kabaka, of Buganda (and therefore of the Baganda people) were angered by an attempt by the government to stop their leader from attending a youth ceremony in a district near the capital. The kingdom of Buganda claimed a proud 600-year history, and was the most powerful of Uganda's four traditional kingdoms. Its traditional lands include most of Kampala and the surrounding districts. President Museveni was a member of the much smaller Ankole tribe.
The promotion of Lt-Col Muhoozi to head a powerful new presidential guard unit raised growing concern within opposition ranks that the government was creating an environment that could spawn violence through the active recruitment of a militia force for deployment in the election. Some commentators had expressed alarm about the militarisation of Ugandan society ahead of the elections. Some opposition officials had claimed that cadres from Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) had taken to wearing military uniforms. On Dec. 12, 2009, President Museveni had been chief guest at the passing out of 2,400 "election watchers" at Kololo airstrip. The graduates were pictured re-assembling AK47 assault rifles and undertaking an army style march past.
Notwithstanding such concerns, some analysts believed that the Museveni regime would be receptive to Western appeals for peaceful elections in 2011. The Ugandan newspaper the Daily Monitor reported on Feb. 2 that Mara Otero, the US under-secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, had recently visited Uganda and had insisted that the government must hold a "better managed" election and an "organised electoral process" in 2011. The state minister for international affairs, Henry Oryem-Okello, had reportedly assured Otero that elections scheduled for 2011 would be "credible, free and fair".
Historical Context
Palaeolithic tools dating from 50,000 BC have been discovered along the Kagera river in Uganda, although it was not until the first millennium AD that agriculture developed in the region. By the 14th century the Chwezi people had founded a centralised kingdom with its capital at Bigo bya Mugenyi.
During the reign of Kabaka (King) Mutesa I (1846-84) European explorers first entered the country of Buganda, followed by Anglican and Catholic missionaries. At about this time, traders from Sudan introduced Islam to the country. Following the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890, the territory of present-day Uganda, incorporating Buganda and 28 other ethnic groups, came under the British sphere of influence. It was administered by a trading company until 1893 when it was formally incorporated into the empire as a Protectorate. In 1900 an agreement was signed with the Kabaka that privileged Buganda with a degree of autonomy. The Ganda, together with other Bantu people from the south, subsequently played an important role in the administration of Uganda while the armed forces were recruited among the Acholi and Langi from the north of the country.
Uganda was given a legislative council in 1921, but it was not until 1945 that its first African member was admitted. In 1955, the Namirembe Agreement, giving Ugandans a majority in the Protectorate's executive and administrative councils, signalled that independence was on its way. Rival political parties were formed, divided along ethnic and religious rather than ideological lines. In an attempt to prevent the country fragmenting, the British imposed a federal constitution at independence in 1962 which gave considerable autonomy to the four kingdoms, including Buganda, and 10 administrative districts. The first government, formed by an alliance of Ganda and northern groups, was led by the kabaka (king) of Buganda as president and Milton Obote, a Langi, as prime minister. In 1966 Obote suspended the constitution, declared himself executive president and shifted government policy to the left. Resistance in Buganda was put down by the army, under Idi Amin, who seized power in 1971.
During the eight years of Amin's rule, as many as 300,000 Ugandans were killed, the Langi and the Acholi being particularly targeted. Meanwhile, the economy quickly fell into ruin. As part of his "economic war" against foreign domination, Amin ordered the expulsion in 1972 of Asians living in Uganda who did not hold Ugandan citizenship. Amin was overthrown by Ugandan exiles supported by the Tanzanian army in 1979. After a period of political turmoil elections were held in December 1980 and returned Milton Obote as president. Opposition leader Yoweri Museveni created the National Resistance Army (NRA) and launched a guerrilla war against Obote. President Obote alienated the Acholi faction in the army by appointing a Langi as army chief in 1983, over the heads of Acholi leaders. In July 1985, Acholi units mounted a coup bringing Gen. Tito Okello to power. Okello was, however, unable to defeat the NRA which took control of Kampala in January 1986 and Museveni was installed as president. President Museveni banned party political activity. In June 2000, the continuation of the existing non-party political system (the "Movement" system) was approved in a national referendum. However, a new referendum took place in July 2005, and approved the re-establishment of multiparty politics. In multiparty presidential elections held in February 2006, President Museveni, candidate of the NRM, was retuned to office with 59 per cent of the vote.
