It is not a good omen for a rising politician of Uganda's National Resistance Movement to be persistently touted as possible successor to President Yoweri Museveni. Within no time, the "star" may either be reassigned to a less visible portfolio or, somehow, become the subject of unsavoury newspaper headlines, from wife-snatching to massive corruption allegations, leaving behind a bruised, humbler individual. Uganda seems to have space for only one bull in the kraal.
So when, a year ago, the opposition charged that Museveni was grooming his 36-year-old son Lt Col Muhoozi Kainerugaba to succeed him, quite a few eyebrows were raised in a wait-a-minute kind of way. Museveni had just announced the transformation of the Presidential Guard Brigade into an elite, Special Forces Group headed by Kainerugaba. The word was that protecting the president would be taken over by the police, while the new unit would fight terrorism and support the regular army. Critics feared that Museveni, having seen his son through military colleges including Sandhurst, was anointing a crown prince of sorts.
But as Uganda goes to the polls on 18 February, voters will be asked to weigh Museveni against a field of seven challengers, who are now traversing the country to woo voters. So, who are the main opposition candidates trying to upstage this alleged succession plan?
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