False: Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba Did Not Threaten To Arrest The Kabaka of Buganda Over Bobi Wine
Claim
A viral post on TikTok claims that the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, allegedly said he would soon arrest the Kabaka of Buganda if Bobi Wine does not return to Uganda, but the claim is false.
The post attracted 12.6K likes, 1,856 comments, 1,244 saves and 2,798 shares.
Background
Gen. Muhoozi frequently comments on political issues through his X account, where some of his posts have attracted public controversy and have occasionally been deleted.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu commonly known as Bobi Wine, a prominent opposition figure, has also frequently been the subject of his public commentary online.
The Kabaka (King) of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, is a highly respected cultural leader in Uganda. Any claim suggesting threats against him is serious, capable of triggering public alarm and could potentially incite tension or fear if believed.
Evidence
To verify this claim we started by using the Info Verifier tool to assess the accuracy and truth of the claim by querying the Debunk Bot questions like “Did Gen. Muhoozi says he will arrest the Kabaka if Bobi Wine does not return to Uganda and is taken to his basement?” The tool found no evidence supporting the claim that he threatened to arrest the Kabaka.
The tool identified articles here, here, here and here of instances of provocative statements directed at Bobi Wine, however, none referenced the Kabaka or any plan to arrest him.
We then conducted a simple Google search to determine whether Gen. Muhoozi made such threats. We searched Google using variations of the claim to determine whether any credible news organisation had reported such a statement.
Our searches found no credible news reports, official statements, or verified social media posts supporting the claim, including Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s verified X account, where he regularly posts political statements. On the contrary, available reports indicate that Gen. Muhoozi has previously distanced himself from or denied statements targeting the Kabaka, affirming his respect for the Buganda cultural institution led by Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.
We also performed a Google reverse image search on a screenshot from the TikTok video to trace the original post. The earliest version we traced was posted by the same content creator on Facebook. From there, we assessed the credibility of the accounts (TikTok and FaceBook) that shared the claim and found that they regularly share misleading content and noticed that a YouTube link, is always attached claiming viewers can watch the alleged speech. However, upon reviewing the channel, it contains only music videos and no evidence of the claimed statement. This suggests the Youtube link redirects users to a channel containing only music uploads rather than the alleged speech. This indicates the link is being used as clickbait to attract views rather than provide evidence supporting the claim.
Methodology
We verified the claim through the following methods.
The Info Verifier tool
We used the Info Verifier tool to assess the accuracy of the claim by querying whether Gen. Muhoozi made the statement about arresting the Kabaka of Buganda in relation to Bobi Wine and the tool found no evidence supporting this specific claim.
Media Monitoring
We reviewed coverage from credible media houses to check whether such a statement had been reported and there was no report in support of the claim.
We also reviewed Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s verified X account, where he regularly posts political statements, but found no post containing the alleged threat.
Reverse Image Search and Source Analysis:
We conducted a Google reverse image search to trace the original post and found that it was first shared by a similar account on FaceBook. We then analysed the accounts and found they were not credible to share news for both accounts shared misleading and false information. They also added a YouTube link for click bait.
Verdict: False
We found no evidence that Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba threatened to arrest the Kabaka of Buganda if Bobi Wine failed to return to Uganda. The claim does not appear on his verified social media accounts, in any official communication, or in credible news reporting. The accompanying YouTube link leads to unrelated music content rather than evidence of the alleged statement, indicating it was used as clickbait to drive engagement.