KAMPALA – Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has announced that Turkish nationals without valid work permits will face arrest and deportation, escalating his recent public dispute with Turkey through a series of posts on X.
In posts published on Sunday, Gen. Muhoozi said security agencies would begin enforcing immigration laws against Turkish nationals working illegally in Uganda.
“From next week any Turk without a valid working permit will be arrested! Anywhere in Uganda,” he wrote.
In a subsequent post, he extended the deadline, saying: “There are no pacts between lions and men! All Turks must be outside of our country in 30 days.”
He also declared: “All illegal Turks must be out of Uganda by 8th July.”
In another post, Gen. Muhoozi attributed the directive to his religious beliefs, writing: “My God Jesus Christ has instructed me to chase the Turkish from His country! That’s what we will do.”
The statements represent the latest escalation in Gen. Muhoozi’s increasingly public criticism of Turkey.
Earlier this month, he announced on X that Uganda had cancelled its multi-billion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) contract with Turkish construction company Yapı Merkezi and called for demonstrations outside the Turkish Embassy in Kampala. However, the Ministry of Works and Transport did not issue any official confirmation that the contract had been terminated, creating uncertainty over the status of the project.
The SGR agreement, signed in October 2024, awarded Yapı Merkezi a €2.7 billion contract to construct the 272-kilometre Malaba-Kampala railway, one of Uganda’s flagship infrastructure projects aimed at improving regional trade and transport links.
Analysts have linked Gen. Muhoozi’s recent criticism of Turkey to broader diplomatic tensions, including his previous calls for Ankara to extradite Ugandan government critics reportedly living in Turkey.
As of Sunday, neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a statement confirming that Gen. Muhoozi’s latest remarks constitute official government policy on Turkish nationals residing or working in Uganda.
Likewise, the Turkish Embassy in Kampala had not publicly responded to the posts.
Uganda and Turkey have in recent years expanded cooperation in trade, construction, education and defence, with Turkish companies undertaking major infrastructure projects and investments in the country. The latest comments by the army chief are likely to draw renewed attention to relations between Kampala and Ankara if followed by formal government action.
Whether the announced crackdown will be implemented remains unclear, as immigration enforcement in Uganda is ordinarily carried out by the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
