Uganda: Muhoozi's NMG Shutdown, the Rwabwogo Challenge, and the Tanzania Complication
Ujasusi East Africa Monitoring Team | 28 June 2026 | 1900 BST
Contents
The NMG closure: what happened and what preceded it
Muhoozi’s command authority exceeds his constitutional mandate
Rwabwogo’s intervention reflects genuine fracture, not distraction
The Rostam Aziz ownership channel carries cross-border consequences
PLU restructuring signals accelerating institutional consolidation
On the night of 27 June 2026, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Chief of Defence Forces and son of President Yoweri Museveni, ordered the military closure of Nation Media Group’s Uganda operations, taking NTV Uganda, Spark TV, KFM, Dembe FM, and the Daily Monitor off air without legal instrument, regulatory order, or formal government statement. On the same day, Odrek Rwabwogo, Museveni’s son-in-law and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID), published a video address cataloguing what he described as three existential threats to Uganda: weak execution, elite disunity, and the degradation of public leadership.
Both events occurred as Muhoozi formalised a restructuring of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), appointing Daudi Kabanda as Head of the PLU Chairman’s Office, a newly created coordination role, two weeks after removing him as Secretary General. NMG Uganda is now owned by Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz, who acquired a controlling 54.08 percent stake in March 2026 and maintains documented close ties to President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The NMG closure: what happened and what preceded it
Muhoozi announced the NMG closure through his personal X account, stating that President Museveni had approved the plan and that the outlets would remain closed without his personal permission. Armed security personnel were deployed at NMG’s Namuwongo headquarters and at Kampala Serena Hotel before midnight on 27 June, blocking staff from entering or leaving. NTV Uganda and Spark TV went dark at approximately 5:00am on 28 June. At time of writing, neither the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, the Uganda Police Force, nor the Uganda Communications Commission had issued any formal statement citing a legal basis for the deployment.
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This is not the first time NMG Uganda has been subjected to state coercion. In May 2013, police raided the Daily Monitor after the newspaper published a letter alleging the existence of a plan to position Muhoozi as Museveni’s successor. The premises were sealed for more than a week. In 2007, NTV Uganda was forced off air months after its launch. The 2026 operation differs from both predecessors in one material respect: it was ordered explicitly in Muhoozi’s name, not in the name of the state, and was justified by Muhoozi’s personal displeasure with coverage rather than any stated regulatory violation. What that distinction reveals about the current distribution of power in Uganda, and what the simultaneous Rwabwogo intervention and PLU restructuring signal about the pace of succession consolidation, is the subject of this assessment.
