Uganda’s military leader General Muhoozi Kainerugaba made an unscheduled apology to the United States on January 30, 2026, after the US government threatened to impose sanctions on Uganda for its human rights violations and electoral violence.
General Kainerugaba, who serves as both a military leader and the son of President Yoweri Museveni, deleted his social media posts after he recognized that his information sources were incorrect. The protectorate security agreement between the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and U.S. military forces would remain active according to his apology statement.
Kainerugaba made his X account statement about his need to apologize to America because he had direct talks with the U.S. Ambassador who works in Kampala.
The general’s apology followed U.S. lawmakers, including Jim Risch, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who requested President Donald Trump to impose sanctions against him based on reliable evidence of election-related violence and human rights violations in Uganda. Risch called for the United States to conduct a complete examination of its security relationship with Kampala.
The conflict started when Kainerugaba publicly accused U.S. embassy staff members in Kampala of working together with opposition leader Robert “Bobi Wine” Kyagulanyi to track down the opposition figure who went missing after the contested elections on January 15. He announced that he would stop all collaboration with the embassy, which included joint military activities, because of this decision, which created concern among Western and regional partner states.
The opposition forces and international observers rejected the accusation as false, while Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s chief diplomat in Washington, intervened to stop the rising conflict between two parties. The military chief changed his position after diplomats conducted urgent negotiations, which enabled him to restore his broken relationship with the United States.
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