Museveni reacts to Zimbabwe's Coup: Uganda is following the situation closely
After Robert Mugabe lost his decades-long grip to power from a military takeover early Thursday, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has come out to condemn the actions.The military declared on national television in the early hours of Wednesday morning that it had temporarily taken control of the country to “target criminals”around the 93-year-old president.Uganda's State Minister for International Relations, Henry Okello Oryem says Uganda is closely following the developments in Zimbabwe.
He says under the current African Union rules, no African state can recognise a military coup on the continent by any military officer or group implying that Uganda is mandated to side with Mugabe's establishment.
He said Mugabe's administration was legitimately constituted and should not be removed through a military activity.
Museveni has asked for updates from the Ugandan embassy in South Africa regarding the situation in Zimbabwe and will take appropriate action.
Mugabe is said to be under house arrest but the whereabouts of his wife Grace, who was bidding to succeed him as president, are unknown.
Mugabe has been in control of Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980.
"There is a transition of power underway and it has tacit agreement from regional powers," the senior member of Zimbabwe's opposition party, Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, told CNN.
Mean while, back in Uganda, Musevini also is said to be scared as more and more Ugandans reject the constitutional amendment aimed at removing the presidential age cap of 75, the campaign appears to have engulfed the nation.
"I have never seen Museveni in panic mode like he is now," said Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, the Opposition Chief Whip in parliament and MP for Kiira Municipality. "There is nothing that has ever divided the NRM like this."
He says panic is the reason the president is picking fights with Kyaddondo East legislator Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.