News
Ten years ago, ragga singer Bobi Wine, sporting
dreadlocks and oversized black sunglasses, regularly appeared in
music videos surrounded by women, driving a Cadillac with a joint
hanging out of his mouth.
Today the star, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is an MP
dressed in dark, tailored suits who is fighting to become president
of Uganda in Thursday’s election.
The 38-year-old former pop star has become the main challenger
to President Yoweri Museveni, 76, who came to power in 1986 and is
the only president that many in Uganda have ever known.
While Wine has been arrested numerous times since 2018, and says
he was sometimes tortured, he has accused the regime of going to
extremes to crack down on his campaign in recent weeks.
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Orders Social Media Shutdown Ahead Of Vote
He has taken to wearing a bulletproof vest and combat helmet on
the campaign trail, where his meetings have often ended in a cloud
of teargas and with live rounds fired.
The hashtag #WeAreRemovingADictator has spread on social media
among the supporters of his National Unity Platform (NUP).
– Fight against injustice –
Wine grew up in one of Kampala’s biggest slums, Kamwokya, where
thousands of Ugandans struggle to get by and feel forgotten by
Museveni’s government.
While he went on to study music and drama at university and now
lives in a better neighbourhood, he still sees himself as the
“ghetto president”, a nickname he earned through his songs
denouncing social and economic injustice.
His modest origins and youth are key to his popularity in a poor
country where 40 percent of voters are under 30 years old and have
known no president but Museveni.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, says President Museveni is attempting
to derail his bid to stand in polls scheduled for 2021.
AFP
As an MP, Wine notably fought against a tax on social media,
widely seen as unfair and limiting freedom of speech.
“Having lived in the ghetto he appreciates how the poor like us
live,” said supporter and businessman Charles Mbagga, 37, who lives
in the Gayaza slum, 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of the
capital.
“Bobi Wine is popular because of his message for change, fight
against injustice, corruption and unemployment among the poor and
the youths.”
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He originally hails from the dominant Buganda kingdom — one of
several traditional kingdoms which were forced together under
colonialism — and is popular there.
“(The) Buganda kingdom is an important factor in the political
context of Uganda. Bobi Wine has always been very careful with
Buganda, making sure he has them on his side,” said Kristof Titeca,
a researcher at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
But analysts are sceptical over Wine’s capacity to pull off an
election win. The country is still traumatised by the tyranny of
brutal dictator Idi Amin, who Museveni helped oust, ushering in
peace and stability.
Rural areas and some groups like the military remain firmly
behind the president.
– ‘Dictatorship in panic’ –
Nevertheless, the regime has shown in recent weeks a certain
anxiety towards the young upstart who Museveni has in the past
referred to as “our grandson, the undisciplined Bobi Wine”.
In mid-November at least 54 people were killed in clashes with
police which were sparked by Wine’s umpteenth arrest. In December a
member of the singer’s security team was killed by the army,
according to his National Unity Platform (NUP).
At the end of December, election rallies — already restricted to
a quick address from the roof of a car — were banned in Kampala and
10 other key districts.
Officially, this was due to Covid-19, but Wine and observers
have seen this as a deliberate bid to frustrate his campaign.
“The dictatorship is in panic. They’ve been surprised by the
massive enthusiasm and support we’ve been received with in all
parts of the country,” Wine wrote on Twitter.
Titeca argues the regime may have shot itself in the foot by
cracking down on him, and the repression may help Wine win even
more votes.
“The fact he has been able to face that crackdown, people
getting killed around him, him not backing down on everything that
is happening, it has made him a martyr in a way, somebody who dares
to stand up to the current system,” said the analyst.
AFP
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