Dear Muhoozi: Your Children, Friends, and Relatives Have Blood Flowing in Their Veins, Tone Down and Spare This Country. There Is More to Uganda Than Your Ambition for Power.

There comes a moment in the life of every nation when silence becomes betrayal. This is that moment. And if no one has told you the truth lately, allow me the honour not out of hate, but out of love for a bleeding country you are dragging by the throat toward the edge of a cliff. I write as one who still believes that Uganda, this land soaked in the dreams and blood of our ancestors deserves better than what your Twitter fingers have unleashed upon it.

You may not see it from where you sit, on the high tables of privilege and power, but your actions, your rhetoric, and your casual, arrogant tweets are a recipe for a bloodbath. A nation is not a toy. This country is not a playground for your ambition. It is a house built on fragile walls of peace. It only takes a careless spark, and you, sir, are becoming the spark master for the whole house to catch fire.

You recently posted a photo of Eddie Mutwe, announcing that he was “learning Runyankore” in your basement. The picture showed him, bruised, tortured, and dehumanized. You thought that was humorous. But General, that was not wit-it was wickedness. That was not a joke, it was a chilling echo of tyranny. That single tweet said more about the rot within the system you now command than any report from Human Rights Watch ever could. A man disappeared, tortured, and paraded like a conquered prisoner while you joke that he was in your basement learning Runyankore. Are you that detached from the pain in this country? Do you imagine for a moment that the people you torment have families, dreams, and blood in their veins like your own children?

Uganda is a country governed by a Constitution, one your own father swore to uphold. That Constitution demands lawful conduct, protection of rights, and restraint from those in positions of power. Yet under your watch and sometimes seemingly at your command, abductions, torture, and intimidation are fast becoming the language of the State. You are the Chief of Defence Forces, not of a private militia, but of a national army. An army funded by the taxes of mothers selling tomatoes in Owino and other markets across the country, fathers toiling under the sun in Karamoja and other places, and youth suffocating under joblessness. Yet you wield that title like a tribal birthright mocking, abducting, torturing, and tweeting your way into infamy.

Among your people in Ankole, there is a tale. When a lion attacked, a herdsman would stretch out his finger to distract it. The lion, thinking it had won, would bite off the finger and begin to enjoy it. But the herdsman used that brief moment to strike or flee. You, Muhoozi, are that reckless herdsman. Only you’ve made a fatal mistake, Ugandans are the lion. And instead of distracting them, your arrogance has awakened them. Your finger is already deep in their jaws, and they are growing tired of biting gently. When they finally clamp down, it won’t be the finger they stop at, it will be you. Because this time, the lion will kill the herdsman before it even considers the bait.

Let me ask you plainly: What matters more, your ambition, or the peace of this country? What legacy do you want, an empire built on tweets and torture, or a country that will remember you for choosing restraint when you could have chosen chaos? Do not be consumed by the illusion of control. Ask Frankenstein; sometimes you raise a monster you can no longer master. You are pushing this nation to the brink. One day, Ugandans may wake up and decide that fear no longer controls them. And when that day comes, your weapons, your titles, and your “elite units” will not save you. Neither will your Twitter account.

And if blood ever flows in this country because of your words or actions, history will forget everything you and your father have done. It will remember one thing: that you led Uganda into the abyss. That you took a match to the barn while pretending to be the shepherd. You are not exempt from the laws of consequence. Even those who cheer you on from the sidelines have blood in their veins. And if this country ignites, they too will bleed. The country will not burn selectively.

And before you imagine too much, let history lecture you. Remember Libya, Gaddafi ruled with an iron fist for 42 years. He mocked protestors, laughed at their demands, and called them rats. But when the dam of anger burst, he was dragged from a sewer pipe like a wounded animal, beaten by the same people who once chanted his name, and shot in the streets like a stray dog. His children scattered. His empire crumbled. His country, to this day, has not known peace.

Look at Sudan. Omar al-Bashir ruled for 30 years. He crushed dissent, silenced critics, and smiled while his security forces spilled blood. But in 2019, the streets rose. Women, youth, and even soldiers turned against him. His own army dumped him in prison. Today, he sits in a dusty cell, forgotten by the world, a ghost of the power he once abused.

And do not forget Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. For over 30 years, he ruled with ruthless abandon. He amassed obscene wealth, murdered his opponents, and turned a nation of gold and diamonds into a jungle of misery and corruption. He, too, had a loyal army. He, too, believed his people feared him too much to resist. But when the winds turned, he ran. He fled his own land like a thief, hiding under the cloak of shame. He died not in the comfort of Kinshasa’s palaces, but in exile, in a dusty Moroccan town, riddled with cancer, rejected by the very country he thought he owned. No national funeral. No honour. Just silence, disgrace, and a forgotten grave. Even Nelson Mandela, the very embodiment of reconciliation and diplomacy could not save him when he personally intervened in 1997, attempting to mediate peace talks.

The statements you made about Eddie Mutwe were not just unfortunate, they were cruel. It is precisely because of this risk that governments around the world use spokespersons to avoid reckless speech, to ensure that national communication is measured, sober, and unifying. You seem to believe that your version of truth must prevail. But arrogance is not leadership. And pride is not patriotism. Tone down, General. Step back. Reflect. Let the institutions of government operate without your interference. Let the Ministry of Defence speak for itself. Let the rule of law breathe. You were not appointed CDF to taunt citizens, torture opponents, or turn the army into a tool of fear. You were appointed to serve.

History teaches us that it only takes a little thing to create a river of blood. How will history forgive you if for the jewel of the crown, you chose to create a nation of graves? You will not rule forever. No man does. So, think, reflect, and do what is right; not what is loud, not what is viral, not what is cruel. Will your legacy be that for the lust of the crown, or that you threw the nation into flames? Remember always that this country is for all of us and that your own ambitions do not deserve the destruction of our country.