Uganda ruling party rejects plan for son to succeed president

The leadership of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's party has rejected his plan to designate his son, known for boasting of kidnapping and torturing rivals, as his successor, five party sources told AFP on Wednesday.

The president's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 52, is currently head of the army, and wields huge and growing influence as his 82-year-old father plays a declining role in governing the east African country after four decades in power.

"Muhoozi", as he is widely known, has vowed to run in the next presidential election scheduled for 2031, but many are unnerved by his flouting of the law, and inflammatory posts on social media, where he frequently boasts of torturing opponents in his "basement".

In recent months, he has had political rivals imprisoned, threatened to behead opposition leader Bobi Wine, and forced the closure of the country's leading independent media group for several weeks.

Although Museveni has ruled with an iron grip since 1986, many within his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), have voiced concern at the apparent moves to hand power to his son.

In a closed-door meeting of the NRM's executive committee on Tuesday, convened to determine a successor, a vote on the son's candidacy had to be abandoned as several of the 28 members spoke against the plan and received loud cheers, according to five people present.

Four people had voted in favour of the son, three had voted against, by the time the vote was called off, the sources told AFP.

"The combative nature of the (army chief) has created uneasiness among some people. He is fighting and threatening people on social media. Let him start convincing people but not using coercive means to capitulate the population," said one source.

NRM vice-chairman Calvin Echodu told Museveni to retire the son from the army and give him a civilian assignment to get acquainted with the population and prepare himself well for leadership," said another participant.

Echodu also reportedly advised the president that he should stand again in 2031 "as his son is not yet ready," the source added.

The attendees say it was an unprecedented show of defiance against the long-ruling president, who first broached the subject of his succession by presenting a paper to the party grandees in late October, in which he suggested his son had the right credentials for the job.

In recent days, Kainerugaba has once again drawn attention with bellicose posts on X, threatening Vice President Jessica Alupo with arrest over claims she was involved in a plot to overthrow the government.