In a reshuffle announced on Tuesday, Museveni moved his son Kainerugaba up in the government. Museveni did this in his role as commander-in-chief of Uganda's armed forces. He replaced Kainerugaba as Land Forces Commander with Gen. Kayanja Muhanga.
People think that Kainerugaba's controversial tweets, in which he said that he and "my army" would take over Nairobi, Kenya's capital, in two weeks, led to this change.
Many Ugandans were shocked by this mini-reshuffle, and they have since asked Museveni why he chose to promote Kainerugaba even though he had made rash statements and seemed to be a bad officer. Kainerugaba is known for being outspoken on social media. He has been "punished" in the past for his controversial tweets, and Museveni has said he will stop Kainerugaba from sending such careless tweets in the future.
But in a statement on Wednesday, Museveni explained why his son was not promoted and why he was not promoted.
"Then why did you make him a full General after he said these things?" Museveni said, "This is because he did something bad as a public servant by making this mistake." "However, the General has made and can still make many other positive contributions. This is a tried-and-true method: discourage the bad and encourage the good.
Kainerugaba, who is 48 years old, is the UPDF's youngest four-star general. Kainerugaba says that in a few days, he will have a huge street party on Kampala Road to mark this important event.