We will crush you; read a tweet by first son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba in another jab.
Like many which the handle has aimed at neighboring countries and other agencies, this one was aimed at journalists whom he says have been abusive.
Muhoozi has threatened to crush them when he takes power.
At 7pm this evening, the General’s twitter handle published a tweet that sent mixed feelings to most tweeps making different comments and tagging particular journalists who could be seen making comments in self-defense.
“For some of the journalists that like to abuse us…let me say. Nobody will protect you when we come to power! You’ll feel us soon. We will crush you!!!” the tweet read.
It was difficult to tell what kind of context the General was using by press time but some of the comments under the tweet pleaded for the journalists.
“Afande forgive them most of them are hired to abuse us the innocent forgive them Supreme Leader they will reform with time,” a comment from Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi read.
Muhoozi in a separate tweet also promised to forgive the daily Monitor Newspaper whose journalists he refered to as terrorists.
Journalists in the country have had a fair share of brutality and arrests at the hand of the security agencies forcing some of them to seek asylum in other country.
During and after the 2021 presidential elections, many journalists sustained several injuries at the hands of the uniformed men and women but to date, many of them have never been compensated for what they lost.
For instance Mr Ashraf Kasirye a former New Vision journalist who has since left the country for further treatment was shot at by a police officer in Masaka District on December 27, 2021. At the time of his shooting and injurying his skull, he was working with Ghetto TV.
On the same day, Mr Ali Mivule, a journalist with NTV Uganda, was left with a bruised thigh after a tear gas canister was fired in his direction.
Three days later, Ms Culton Scovia Nakamya of BBS Terefayina, Derrick Wandera a senior political journalist at Daily Monitor and other journalists were separately arrested, interrogated, and detained on account of live streaming and profiling officers who were part of the troops on the ground.
The 2021 Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda’s (HRNJ) Press Freedom Index report named the police, the army, and resident district commissioners as those at the top of the list of institutions violating the rights of journalists in the country.
The report indicated that police account for nearly 60 percent of all violations documented in 2021. No wonder, the scars in the minds of Ms Irene Abalo are still fresh. The NMG Uganda journalist—and mother of three—was among the journalists who were roughed up by security forces as they attempted to cover Bobi Wine petitioning the United Nation on human rights violations.
During the conversation that was happening on Gen Muhoozi’s Tweet targeted towards journalists, the always tweeting general emphasized his position.
“Sounds tough right? But yet we mean what we say and say what we mean all we need are patriots on table for this country to get to greater heights,” he said in a tweet.
