Uganda Returns to the 2027 Invictus Games After Reassurance From King Charles
Uganda will compete at the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham after its army chief reversed a withdrawal order that lasted less than a week.
Uganda People's Defence Force spokesperson Chris Magezi announced on Monday, 14 September 2026, that Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba had reinstated participation The Guardian. Kainerugaba is Uganda's military chief and the eldest son of President Yoweri Museveni.
The reversal followed a phone call between Kainerugaba and Clive Alderton, the principal private secretary to the king and queen — effectively the palace's chief of staff. According to the Ugandan account, King Charles III said he has no problem with Uganda taking part and encouraged the Chief of Defence Forces to proceed with preparations. Kainerugaba said Uganda would resume preparations after appreciating the king's message and clarity from Buckingham Palace.
Kainerugaba had announced the withdrawal last week in a post on X, writing, "Uganda hereby withdraws from the invictus games." In that 8 September announcement, he also stated that the king never said he didn't support the games. He said taking part could be seen as opposed to King Charles III and that Uganda would not join anything without his approval. He told The Times he acted because of factions in the Ministry of Defence supporting Harry-Meghan and that he supports the monarch.
Two months earlier, Prince Harry had stood with Uganda's defence minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka in London to announce Uganda as the 26th country to enter the Games. The minister's announcement and the general's reversal put civilian and military leaders on different public lines before Buckingham Palace intervened.
Kainerugaba was appointed army chief in 2024 and, like Prince Harry, graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, Britain's officer-training school. Charles appeared at the 2014 launch of the Invictus Games, the adaptive-sport competition founded by the Duke of Sussex for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans. Birmingham will host in 2027.
The broader context here is less about who can play and more about who decides. Three points matter for close watchers. First, a direct palace aide channel was used to resolve a public order from a serving defence chief. Second, joining a competition started by Prince Harry was presented as loyalty to the king, rather than as a veterans policy choice by the defence ministry that announced it. Third, the fast correction limits damage to preparations but leaves open how the team will be managed between the minister who announced entry and the general who paused and then restored it.
In my view, the episode will be read in Kampala and London less as an ending than as a clarification of rules. Buckingham Palace has now said on the record that it does not object to Uganda taking part. Whether that settles the factional dispute Kainerugaba cited, or pushes it back inside the army and the ministry, will shape Uganda's road to Birmingham.
