The Uganda People’s Defense Forces has promised to play an unbiased role in the upcoming 2026 general elections.

“The army does not support any political candidate,” declared the UPDF spokesman Brig Felix Kulayigye,

“Our role is purely to secure the country during elections, against attacks or external interference.”

Asked in an interview with the African Institute for Investigative Journalism, if the army will not favour its current Chief Of Defense Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba if he decides to run for President, Kulayigye said this is not part of the plan.

“We do not protect election practitioners; that is the job of the police,” he said.

“Ours is reinforcing the police in areas where they are required to be firm.”

Gen Muhoozi has repeatedly expressed in public his intentions to contest for president in the next elections

The general has also exchanged bitterly with groups which are pushing for his father, President Yoweri Museveni’s return for an 8th term of office.

Social media politics

Gen Kulayigye however, insists that the comments made by the CDF on social media cannot be considered as facts by the national army.

“We are still waiting for when he announces publicly that he wants to be president,” he said.

Kulayigye also defended Gen Muhoozi’s involvement in political commentary (which is prohibited under the UPDF Act), noting that at the time, the general was occupying a political office as a Presidential Advisor on Special Operations.

“He was practising politics as a senior presidential advisor on special operations and that is a political office,” Kulayigye stressed,

“You cannot use what he did when he was in that office to judge his performance as CDF.”

This article first appeared on Pulse Uganda website