Ugandan leader’s son announces candidacy for president, before withdrawing tweet

Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, announced his candidacy for the 2026 presidential election, saying it was "time for our generation to shine," before retracting his tweet Thursday.

Observers have long considered Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 48, who recently became embroiled in a diplomatic row with Kenya, to be tipped to take over, even though Kainerugaba said in 2013 that "Uganda is not a monarchy."

"In the name of Jesus Christ my God, in the name of all the youth of Uganda and the world and in the name of our great revolution, I will run for president in 2026," Muhoozi Kainerugaba wrote on Twitter late Wednesday evening, before removing his tweet from the social network.

Yoweri Museveni, 78, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986, may again run for president in the upcoming 2026 election.

In another tweet on Wednesday, which he did not delete this time, Muhoozi Kainerugaba appeared to criticize his septuagenarian father, writing, "How many agree with me that our time has come? Enough of the old people ruling us. Dominate us. It's time for our generation to shine. Retweet and like."

On October 18, 2022, Yoweri Museveni had declared that his only son -- he also has three daughters -- would no longer tweet about the country's affairs, after a series of controversial tweets in early October in which he had notably threatened to invade Kenya.

The head of state had clarified that his son could still express himself on the social network, provided he limited himself to comments on sports, for example.

But Muhoozi Kainerugaba said the next day on Twitter: "I am an adult and no one will ban me from anything.

In early October, the president's son had suggested that it would take him and his army not "two weeks" to take over the Kenyan capital Nairobi. He apologized a few days later to Kenyan President William Ruto.

On October 4, he was replaced as head of the Ugandan ground forces.

In 2022, a series of comments on Twitter by Muhoozi Kainerugaba in favour of rebels in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, which is at war with the federal authorities, also angered Addis Ababa.