Muhoozi transition will be too smooth to feel, says Minister Haruna Kasolo

Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Haruna Kasolo has backed a transfer of power from President Yoweri Museveni to his son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, saying Ugandans would barely notice the change.

Kasolo argued that a peaceful transition would protect people’s homes, farms and businesses. 

“People have worked so hard to make wealth; they have built homes and started farms…what we do not want is for Uganda to become Libya,” he said.

The minister said protecting these gains would require seamless power transition to avoid tumultuous situations as was the case in Libya 

The minister said his recent week-long visit to Tripoli had exposed him to the country’s difficulties. He claimed Uganda was now better off than Libya, which he said many Ugandans once admired.

Libya has faced prolonged instability since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Rival authorities continue to divide the country between east and west. 

Kasolo said Uganda would follow a different path.

“Now Uganda is about to go into a transition that will be so smooth that the ordinary person out there will not realise it. It will be like an intra-transition,” he said.

“You will be out tending your gardens and hear that leadership has changed. That is what is coming.”

Kasolo, the state minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Affairs, has previously promoted a Museveni–Muhoozi transition. In September, he told supporters in Kyotera District that he expected a peaceful handover in 2031 under Kainerugaba. 

His argument comes amid conflicting accounts of succession discussions within the ruling National Resistance Movement.

Recent reports quoting five party sources said senior officials had opposed a proposal to position Kainerugaba as Museveni’s successor during a closed-door Central Executive Committee meeting.

The sources claimed that the committee abandoned a vote after members challenged the proposal. Four members had voted in favour and three against when voting stopped, according to AFP.

NRM secretary general Richard Todwong later rejected that account in a statement dated November 12, 2026.

Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, has said he intends to contest the presidency in 2031. Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986.