Musaazi NAMITI
Former Aruu County MP Odonga Otoo has said he is ready to join the Patriotic League of Uganda, a political outfit founded by army chief and President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba—but he has set one condition: the PLU needs to address human rights violations first.
In a telephone interview, Mr Otto told OJ-UGANDA on Monday that he had “no regret” for attending a PLU event where prominent Ugandans gathered to endorse Gen Kainerugaba’s bid for the presidency in 2031.
“They invited me. Ugandans have opted to support what is convenient, not what is necessarily right,” he said of Gen Kainerugaba’s presidential bid.
Asked whether he would work with the PLU, he said: “If [the] PLU can uphold human rights standards, why not? I would be glad to be their human rights officer since I’m a lawyer.”
He said he was impressed by what the PLU had done, citing roads that have been either constructed or repaired in and around Kampala under the orders of Gen Kainerugaba.
Those who cannot see what the PLU is trying to do, he added, “must be bad-hearted”.
But Mr Otto warned that holding people in the basement—a reference to the detention centre where Gen Kainerugaba says individuals arrested by security forces are detained—was tarnishing the country’s image.
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Local Government Minister Baalam Barugahara, a senior PLU member, shared photos on X from Monday’s event showing Mr Otto standing beside him. Prominent attendees included businessmen Sudhir Ruparelia and Godfrey Kirumira, deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa and former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya.
“He loves MK. He always wants to meet MK,” Mr Burugahara said of Mr Otto, using the initials of Gen Kainerugaba’s name.
Mr Otto, who recently wept on TV while criticising the abduction of former MP and cabinet minister Miria Matembe by the PLU, joined Parliament in his early 20s and represented Aruu County for 20 years.
But he has struggled to regain his constituency in past parliamentary elections. A former member of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), he is now a farmer and a panellist on NBS TV’s current affairs show, the FrontLine.
“For how long will I be in the opposition?” he rhetorically asked during the interview.
Gen Kainerugaba did not attend the event, the second time he has been absent from a function where his presence is expected. A birthday run the PLU organised for him in April went ahead without him.
Although the push for the presidency appears to be gaining momentum, Mr Museveni, whom the Economist said has become frail and cut back working hours, has not yet commented publicly on his son’s bid.
The rights violations Mr Otto referenced have been widely criticised by major international groups, including the UN—which denounced what it called the “gradual erosion of the rule of law”—Human Rights Watch and the Uganda Human Rights Commission.
CORRECTION | Updated September 8, 2026, 08:50: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Mr Otto wept over the abduction of former Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago. He wept over the abduction of Miria Matembe, although he mentioned Mr Erias Lukwago, who was abducted first.
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