Uganda withdraws from Invictus Games citing respect for King Charles

On Wednesday, Uganda's military chief announced his country would withdraw from the Invictus Games, the multisport competition for wounded service personnel founded by Prince Harry. Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Uganda's president and head of the Uganda People's Defence Force, posted the decision on X without advance warning, framing it as a matter of deference to King Charles III.

Kainerugaba's statement was direct: Uganda would not participate in anything lacking the monarch's approval, and the country was withdrawing specifically to avoid appearing opposed to Charles, whom he said Ugandans "deeply revere." When pressed by the Times on what prompted the sudden reversal, Kainerugaba was blunter still. He said factions within his own Ministry of Defence had been pushing support for what he called the "Harry-Meghan nonsense," and he had moved to shut that down immediately. His allegiance, he said, was to the monarch, period.

The timing suggests the withdrawal was triggered by an official letter issued Monday by Richard Benyon, the lord chamberlain and head of the royal household, acting on King Charles's instructions. The letter clarified to senior UK government and military officials that Harry and Meghan were no longer working members of the royal family, could not use HRH titles, and that their charitable activities were undertaken in a private capacity—essentially positioning them as private citizens with commercial and charitable interests rather than representatives of the Crown.

The news landed as a significant setback for Harry's initiative. Just two months earlier, Kainerugaba and Uganda's defence minister, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, had stood alongside Harry at an Invictus Games event in London to announce Uganda's entry as the 26th participating nation. At that moment, Kiwanuka had praised President Yoweri Museveni's visionary leadership and Kainerugaba's role in championing Uganda's participation, calling it a new chapter for the country's servicemen and women. The enthusiasm had seemed genuine and settled.

When the BBC asked Uganda's government spokesperson Alan Kasujja to confirm the withdrawal, he did so plainly, noting that Kainerugaba alone decides whether the Uganda People's Defence Force participates in the Games. If that position changes, Kasujja said, Kainerugaba will announce it.

Kainerugaba, a Sandhurst graduate appointed army chief in 2024, is widely regarded as his 81-year-old father's likely successor to the presidency. He has cultivated a public persona marked by provocative posts on social media—including threats to invade Kenya, demands that Jay-Z surrender Beyoncé so he could marry her, and threats against Bobi Wine, the president's principal political rival. The Invictus Games withdrawal fits a pattern of statements designed to draw attention and signal allegiance to particular figures or causes.

The royal household letter was not aimed at Uganda or the Invictus Games specifically. It was a clarification issued after Harry and Meghan returned to the UK two weeks prior, intended to settle questions about their status within the royal institution. Yet Kainerugaba appears to have read it as a signal—or perhaps as permission—to distance Uganda from an initiative now explicitly unmoored from royal endorsement. Whether the withdrawal stands or shifts will depend on Kainerugaba's next move, which remains unknown.