Uganda’s Army Chief Vows to Shoot Missing Activist

Uganda’s most powerful soldier, the president’s son, has threatened to kill an opposition activist his army says it is not holding.

Uganda’s army chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has threatened to shoot missing opposition activist Sam Mugumya. “I’m going to shoot him to death,” he wrote on X, as Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reported on 3 October.

Muhoozi is the son of President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country of 51 million people since 1986. Mugumya’s family and the opposition say he has been held by the military for over a year.

A threat from the top of the military

The full post read: “People are feeling sorry for Mugumya’s legs? I’m going to shoot him to death.” It brushed aside public concern over leaked footage that appears to show the activist disabled and struggling to walk.

Muhoozi has commanded the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), the national army, since March 2024. He also leads the Patriotic League of Uganda, a political pressure group, and is widely regarded as his father’s heir apparent.

His posts on X have caused trouble before. In October 2022, Museveni apologised to Kenya after his son wrote that he could capture Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in two weeks.

The new remark is different in kind. The army told a court it does not hold Mugumya, yet its commander writes as if he were within reach.

The disappearance in Mbarara

According to the Daily Monitor, armed men, some in military uniform, seized Mugumya from a hotel in Mbarara on 26 August 2025. Mbarara is the main city of western Uganda.

In September 2025, Uganda’s High Court issued a writ of habeas corpus, an order to produce a detained person before a judge. The army replied with a sworn affidavit from Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Musasizi.

Musasizi said a search of military detention facilities and records found no trace of Mugumya. Since then, the activist has not been seen in public or produced in court.

Mugumya is no stranger to detention. Once an aide to opposition veteran Kizza Besigye, he spent about eight years in prison in DR Congo until October 2022.

The leaked video and the army’s response

The current storm began on 30 September. Lieutenant Herbert Mabonga, a self-described former military intelligence officer, released a video alleging that the army runs secret detention sites and that the Special Forces Command held Mugumya in Entebbe.

He also published footage he said showed Mugumya in a severely weakened state, struggling to walk around a compound. The location and date of the footage have not been independently verified.

The UPDF has dismissed Mabonga’s claims as fabricated and called him a deserter. It says he will face military justice.

Parliament sets a two-week deadline

On 1 October, opposition leader Joel Ssenyonyi pressed the government in Parliament. “If these people have committed an offence, why not produce them in court?” he asked.

Government Chief Whip Jane Ruth Aceng said the Ministry of Internal Affairs was following up the cases. Speaker Jacob Oboth then gave the government two weeks to deliver a full report on missing people.

The Uganda Law Society, the national bar association, has said it will petition the United Nations over the case. The Justice Forum, a smaller opposition party, has demanded an independent investigation into the torture allegations.

Strain inside the ruling party

The episode has also exposed tension within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). Water and Environment Minister Kahinda Otafiire, a retired general, warned in Parliament against generals who prefer violence to solve problems.

According to the Daily Monitor, Muhoozi replied on social media by giving Otafiire three days to apologise. NRM spokesperson Emmanuel Dombo said the party “has never sanctioned any Ugandan to be abducted and tortured.”

Why outsiders should pay attention

Museveni was sworn in for a seventh term on 12 May 2026 after disputed elections. Questions over who follows him, and how, shape the outlook for one of East Africa’s larger economies.

Uganda is preparing to become an oil producer, with a crude export pipeline to the Tanzanian coast under construction. Foreign lenders and partners weigh political risk and the rule of law when they commit money there.

The army chief’s threat against a man his own force says it is not holding tests that rule of law directly. For a wider overview, see our Uganda explainer.

What to watch next

The first marker is the government’s report to Parliament, due around mid-October. The second is whether the High Court’s 2025 order to produce Mugumya is finally obeyed.

A third is whether Western governments and the United Nations raise the case with Kampala. Until Mugumya appears in public or in court, his whereabouts and condition remain unconfirmed.

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