Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has threatened to arrest officials of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development and sanction media houses that host them, escalating his increasingly public confrontation with his brother-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo.
In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Muhoozi declared PACEID—an agency established by President Yoweri Museveni and chaired by Rwabwogo—an “illegal organisation” and accused some of its members of corruption.
“PACEID is an illegal organisation. We shall start arresting its members immediately,” Muhoozi said.
“We are going to arrest ALL the members of PACEID involved in corruption.”
PACEID was commissioned by Museveni in March 2022 and is coordinated through the Office of the President.
The army chief later claimed that an unidentified person had been detained but did not disclose the person’s name, the alleged offence or where they were being held.
“We have already arrested one of the criminals. Muraregye,” he wrote, using a Runyankore-Rukiga expression meaning “good night.”
Muhoozi also warned broadcasters against giving airtime to PACEID officials.
“Radios and TVs that allow members of the outlawed PACEID to talk will face severe consequences,” he said.
In another post, he wrote: “You saw what we did with Parliament. Wait for this one…” — an apparent reference to the Patriotic League of Uganda’s recent intervention in the contest for parliamentary leadership.
Muhoozi also warned that anyone accusing PLU of lacking an ideology was “playing with death” and made a separate death threat against an unidentified person.
“The time for games are over. I will teach the very small boy how to behave in MY house,” he wrote without naming the target.
The sequence of the posts appeared to place Rwabwogo and his allies at the centre of the attack, although Muhoozi did not mention his brother-in-law by name.
Neither PACEID nor Rwabwogo had publicly responded by the time of publication. Police and the military had also not announced an investigation into PACEID or confirmed the arrest claimed by Muhoozi.
Proxy confrontation
The development underscores the growing animosity between Museveni’s son and son-in-law, whose allies have been engaged in an increasingly bitter proxy confrontation.
It is also likely to deepen speculation that the dispute reflects a broader struggle for influence within the ruling establishment and the political succession after Museveni, who has governed Uganda since 1986.
Muhoozi chairs PLU, an increasingly assertive political mobilisation group that supports Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement. Rwabwogo, meanwhile, has built a public profile around economic policy, export promotion and calls for internal renewal within the NRM.
Their differences became more visible after Rwabwogo criticised fear, impunity and violations of the rule of law following the arrest of several activists.
“We must keep the country communicating, and it must communicate freely, without fear,” Rwabwogo said. “You need to speak out without fear because fear disables people.”
“This is your country. You should speak out. I believe the concern behind your question is that we should keep Uganda growing.”
Rwabwogo has argued that civic freedom is inseparable from economic development and essential to Museveni’s ambition of expanding Uganda’s economy to $500 billion.
His remarks were widely interpreted as criticism of the security establishment and PLU’s increasingly aggressive political posture.
The confrontation has largely played out through Kasambya County MP David Kabanda, a prominent Muhoozi ally who has repeatedly accused Rwabwogo of corruption and land grabbing.
Kabanda alleged that Rwabwogo irregularly acquired about seven square miles at Nshaara Government Ranch in Kiruhura District after promising to establish a dairy and livestock project. He claimed the land was instead being used for other commercial activities.
The allegations have not been established by a court or an official investigation.
Rwabwogo dismissed them as “lies from the pit of hell” and accused Kabanda of jealousy and attempting to intimidate him.
“I want to tell you, Rwabwogo has a backbone,” he said. “You will not intimidate me and/or my people.”
Rwabwogo also rejected allegations that he grabbed church land at Kakyeera, saying a boundary dispute was resolved after government surveyors found overlapping property lines affecting several landowners.
“I got 63 acres and handed them over to the church,” he said, adding that he neither penalised nor sued the person who had sold him the land.
Kabanda has maintained his accusations and demanded that Rwabwogo explain the Nshaara land allocation.
PLU flexes its muscle
The latest dispute comes as PLU seeks a greater role in political mobilisation and major decisions within the ruling establishment.
In early May, the group withdrew its support for then-Speaker Anita Among and declared Jacob Oboth Oboth its preferred candidate before the NRM Central Executive Committee announced its official position.
Muhoozi’s reference to “what we did with Parliament” appeared to invoke that intervention as a warning that PLU could deploy similar pressure against PACEID.
PACEID says it has no regulatory authority and works by coordinating government institutions, exporters and private private to improve market access, product standards, logistics and export financing.
