Muhoozi Kainerugaba Presidency Bid: UPDF Spokesperson Reveals Details About The Highly Trained Commandos To Guard Muhoozi 24/7 During The Campaigns

The Uganda People’s Defense Forces has promised to play an unbiased role in the upcoming 2026 general elections.

“The army does not support any political candidate,” declared the UPDF spokesman Brig Felix Kulayigye

“Our role is purely to secure the country during elections, against attacks or external interference.”

Asked in an interview with the African Institute for Investigative Journalism, if the army will not favour its current Chief Of Defense Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba if he decides to run for President, Kulayigye said this is not part of the plan.

“We do not protect election practitioners; that is the job of the police,” he said.

“Ours is reinforcing the police in areas where they are required to be firm.”Gen Muhoozi has repeatedly expressed in public his intentions to contest for president in the next elections.

The general has also exchanged bitterly with groups which are pushing for his father, President Yoweri Museveni’s return for an 8th term of office.Gen Kulayigye however, insists that the comments made by the CDF on social media cannot be considered as facts by the national army.

“We are still waiting for when he announces publicly that he wants to be president,” he said.

Kulayigye also defended Gen Muhoozi’s involvement in political commentary (which is prohibited under the UPDF Act), noting that at the time, the general was occupying a political office as a Presidential Advisor on Special Operations.

“He was practising politics as a senior presidential advisor on special operations and that is a political office,” Kulayigye stressed.

“You cannot use what he did when he was in that office to judge his performance as CDF.”

Muhoozi joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), the army his father, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, led as a guerrilla before capturing power in 1986, 25 years ago.However, discussions surrounding President Museveni’s reshuffle in the army and cabinet have centered on the disbandment of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), a political group formed by Muhoozi’s supporters.

Museveni’s appointment of Balaam Barugahara, Muhoozi’s chief political strategist, as the state minister for children and youth affairs, and Lillian Aber, a known Muhoozi supporter, as the minister for refugees, seems to have laid bare the president’s strategy.

Since his appointment as UPDF Commander of Land Forces in 2021, the First Son’s political ambitions have become increasingly apparent, underscored by bold Twitter posts and public appearances. His nationwide rallies, culminating in widely celebrated birthday events, have stirred both his supporters and opponents, fueling speculation about his political trajectory.

Muhoozi’s supporters have rallied around him, seeing him as a potential successor to his father. However, his recent promotion poses a double-edged sword: it grants him significant political leverage while potentially restricting his political activities as Museveni might expect him to focus on his military responsibilities.

Museveni and Muhoozi have been in a silent power battle for the presidency in the forthcoming 2026 general elections. Last month, Muhoozi through his supporters launched the PLU which they called the successor of the MK Movement.

Branded in yellow colours, the PLU seemed like an affront to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).The MK Movement has always said it was acting with Museveni’s blessing but it was hard to tell whether it was not acting in defiance at times.