The Commander Land Forces, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has made a clarification on his post about his retirement from the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces.

In a video shared at 5:03 pm on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, by journalist Andrew Mwenda who is a close confidant to Muhoozi, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations is seen clarifying he was not retiring tomorrow but in eight years. “Not tomorrow but in eight years,” Muhoozi says in the video.

Mwenda confirmed the video was recorded today in Entebbe. The video follows a viral tweet from Muhoozi on Tuesday in which he announced he was planning to retire from the army.

“After 28 years of service in my glorious military, the greatest military in the world, I am happy to announce my retirement. Me and my soldiers have achieved so much! I have only love and respect for all those great men and women that achieve greatness for Uganda every day,” Muhoozi tweeted.

 Muhoozi's tweet on Tuesday took many by surprise fueling speculation that he might be planning to now join politics. Born on April 24, 1974, 47-year-old Lt. Gen. Kainerugaba is the son of President Yoweri Museveni.

On Tuesday, army sources noted that even if he wanted to quit the army, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi still had to first write to the Army Promotions and Commissions Board before he is cleared to leave the army.

Defence Spokesperson Felix Kulayigye on Tuesday March 8, 2022 noted that he had not yet been briefed about Lt. Gen. Kainerugaba’s decision to quit the army and would not comment on the issue.

Kulayigye however explained that any officer who wanted to quit the army needed to write first to the Army Promotions and Commissions board.

“You apply to retire to the Board and the look into your application,” Kulayigye said.

However, a senior army officer who didn’t want to be named noted that one would not just quit the army through twitter. “You can’t quit the army once you are on active duty. You are contractually and constrained and obligated to remain in active service for the period to which you committed to or if the Army Promotions and Commissions Board think they still need you, they can conscript you into service,” the Senior Army Officer said.

The Senior Officer further added that soldiers are discharged from duty early due to physical or psychological inability to perform duties, for drug abuse, misconduct, and other violations.

“It could also be at the prerogative of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces or the Army Promotions Board to discharge him,” the source said giving an example of Gen. David Ssejusa whose retirement from the army has still been deferred several years after he had applied to retire.

On Tuesday, Balaam Barugahare one of the youths who are staunch supporter of Gen. Muhoozi urged the army to let Muhoozi go fight poverty among the youths.

Reacting to Muhoozi’s earlier tweet of his planned retirement, Balaam said, “Pray for us so that we enter the race properly. After fighting rebellion in the bush, the focus now should be fighting poverty among young people. That should be the focus for anyone.

That is what Gen. Kainerugaba’s aim is. He wants to get out but for us we are waiting for him and will convince him to join us because Mzee (Museveni) has tried the battle of fighting poverty but this requires a young man who can command this battle of fighting poverty,” Balaam said.

He however noted that that Kainerugaba was not yet out of the army. “At the end of the day the army has rules. You can’t say you have retired and the army says no. We pray they don’t get stuck on him this time around,” Balaam added.