An army of loyalists is helping whip up the presidential ambition of the First Son, who is yet to express interest in replacing his father Yoweri Museveni as president of Uganda.

The general’s loyalists have launched an aggressive social media campaign for a 2026 presidential bid for Muhoozi hardly six months into President Museveni’s new term.

Lt. Gen Muhoozi is many things to his legion of youthful supporters –he is the next president, he is presidential material, chairman MK, Gen Muhoozi my role model.

All these and many other credentials are boldly inscribed on branded T-shirts, jumpers, caps, shirts and posters printed, distributed and worn by his legion of supporters –loudly touting Muhoozi’s leadership prowess.

A bold poster has been printed and proclaims, “For peace, unity, transparency and supersonic development, vote President Muhoozi Kainerugaba 2026-2031.”

After eight quiet years, the campaign and campaigners for the Muhoozi project are finally striding out of the closet since the former coordinator of Intelligence Services General David Sejusa kicked up a national storm in April 2013 when he claimed that there was a plot to assassinate senior government officials opposed to the Muhoozi presidency.

Gen Muhoozi tweets and emergence of First Son from the shadows of his father

Reported by the Daily Monitor, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has been the subject of much discussion on the Internet’s social media platforms for more than a year.

For most of his life, one of the biggest sources of frustration for Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has been his living in his father’s shadow, being constantly viewed as a kind of political project and not as an individual.

In Kainerugaba’s current tweets can be seen a defiant tone, the triumphant tone of one who has finally found the freedom to be himself as a stand-alone entity and he seems to be relishing this freedom, writes Timothy Kalyegira.