In a series of social media posts, Kainerugaba, who is also the eldest son of President Yoweri Museveni, accused the U.S. Embassy in Kampala of colluding with the opposition leader to stage his disappearance.
Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces and senior presidential adviser, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has apologised to the United States after reversing his position following allegations that it backed the disappearance of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
On Thursday sparked diplomatic unease after announcing the suspension of military cooperation between Uganda and the United States, only to later reverse the decision and issue a public apology.
In a series of social media posts, Kainerugaba, who is also the eldest son of President Yoweri Museveni, accused the U.S. Embassy in Kampala of colluding with the opposition leader to stage his disappearance.
"Fellow Ugandans, because of the present situation where an opposition leader kidnapped himself and is missing and according to our best intelligence did all this in coordination with the current administration of the US Embassy in our country. We as UPDF suspend all cooperation with the current administration of the US embassy in Kampala. This includes our work in Somalia," he wrote.
He announced an immediate halt to long-standing security collaboration between both countries.
Kainerugaba further alleged that relations between both countries had been steadily weakened by embassy officials, despite otherwise cordial diplomatic ties.
"The very precious security cooperation between Uganda and the United States has been undermined for a decade now (since 2015) by unimaginative bureaucrats at the Embassy. This is inspite of the excellent Political relations between the two countries," he said.
However, on Friday, Kainerugaba made a sharp U-turn, deleting the earlier posts and issuing a public apology to the United States. In the follow-up statement, he attributed the comments to misinformation and confirmed that military cooperation would continue uninterrupted.
"I want to apologise to our great friends the United States for my earlier tweets that I have now deleted. I was being fed with wrong information. I have spoken with the US Ambassador to our country and everything is okay. We are going to continue our military cooperation as usual."
The reversal appeared to calm immediate concerns, though it renewed scrutiny over Kainerugaba’s frequent use of social media to make high-level military and diplomatic pronouncements. His online statements have previously drawn criticism for blurring the lines between personal opinion and official government policy.
Neither the United States Embassy in Kampala nor the Ugandan government immediately issued a formal statement on the incident as of press time.
Earlier, SaharaReporters reported that Kainerugaba issued a controversial directive banning Bobi Wine from further participation in Uganda’s electoral process, citing national security concerns.
Kainerugaba made the declaration in a public statement attributed to him, asserting his authority as head of the armed forces.
“Whether Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu is in the country or not I, as CDF, in the interests of national security and for the good of the commonwealth ban him from any further participation in the electoral exercises of Uganda," he said.
In the same statement, the army chief extended the directive beyond Bobi Wine himself, warning of consequences for individuals who publicly align with the opposition leader.
“From now on ANYONE who declares Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine as his/her political leader must be annulled,” he said.
Kainerugaba further emphasized the binding nature of his directive, grounding it in his interpretation of executive authority.
“My orders stand with the force of the Commander-in-Chief of the State,” he said.
Previously, Bobi Wine alleged that more than 100 of his supporters had been killed in recent days amid escalating political violence, accusing President Museveni’s son and the military of carrying out deadly repression.
In a post on X, the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader said the killings had intensified over the past weeks, contradicting official figures he said were being publicly cited.
“Last night as Museveni’s son was making these threats to kill me and gloating over killing 22 of our supporters (in reality, he has killed over 100 since last week), the military who are stationed inside our compound yet again banged my house doors as they sang profanities, ordering the occupants to come out of the house if they're men,” he said.