(FILES) Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, poses for a photograph after his press conference at his home in Magere, Uganda, on January 26, 2021. Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine was arrested on October 5, 2023 on his return home from a trip abroad, a top party official said. "Our President (Bobi Wine) picked up by regime operatives as soon as he landed at the airport," David Lewis Rubongoya, the general secretary of Wine's National Unity Platform (NUP) said on X, formerly Twitter, with a photo appearing to show two men seizing him by the arms on the tarmac at Entebbe International Airport. (Photo by SUMY SADURNI / AFP)
Ugandan National Unity Platform (NUP) party presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has said they have sought redress from the African Union (AU) and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over continued violence and arrests of their supporters.
“We have continued to receive brutality from the police, army, and other security agencies. They have beaten all our team members and arrested hundreds of them, so we want the AU and EACJ to intervene before we fall into anarchy,” Mr Kayagulanyi said.
He added: “Our people have been provoked because they want us to reiterate and then give them a reason to kill our people as they did in 2020. We want these bodies to come and save our nation before we regret. We have continued to be peaceful, and we don’t want to succumb to the provocation from the security.”
The musician-cum-politician made the remarks during a media briefing at the party’s school of leadership in Kamwokya, Kampala, before heading to his first rally in Mbuya, Nakawa East, and later at Ndere Centre in Nakawa West, both in the capital.
This is not the first time the Opposition party has petitioned regional, continental, and international bodies over what they call injustices. Following the November 18 and 19, 2020 fracas, which claimed the lives of 56 Ugandans after sporadic protests erupted when Bobi Wine was arrested in Luuka District, eastern Uganda, NUP said they had petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the deaths and brutality.
Five years later, the matter has neither been processed nor heard. Bobi Wine contested the election results released by the Electoral Commission (EC), claiming he had been rigged out of victory.
The popstar filed a petition in the Supreme Court but withdrew it almost immediately. He explained that he had been blocked from amending the suit and instead chose to take the matter to the court of public opinion.
Yesterday, Bobi Wine said more than 460 supporters across the country had so far been arrested, while more than 10 people had died in the violence meted out against them. The Electoral Commission (EC) has called for faster investigations into the violence that occurred between security forces and Bobi Wine supporters while he campaigned in Gulu City on Saturday evening.
Mr Julius Mucunguzi, the EC spokesperson, told this publication that their efforts to mitigate the growing confrontations over the last two months seem to have fallen on deaf ears from all actors. The violent clashes, which had first flickered in Mbarara, soon spread to Kampala City when Bobi Wine began his campaigns last month.
The city streets became a theatre of pain, with many people brutalised, including an elderly woman who sustained head injuries.
When Bobi Wine campaigned in Iganga last week, police opened gunfire on supporters at a rally at the railway grounds. Although police declared that one person was shot dead, reports from the ground indicated that three people died in the fracas, including a seven-year-old child who was trampled in the stampede when security personnel opened fire.
Following the series of shootings and confrontations with police, Bobi Wine resumed wearing a bulletproof vest and protective helmet, saying his life was in danger and that his team had received credible information of an impending attack.
In the 2021 polls, Bobi Wine campaigned across the country clad in body armour, claiming his life had been threatened several times. Police defended their actions against Kyagulanyi, saying they were ensuring he did not flout Covid-19 directives.
Yesterday, after leaving their offices, Bobi Wine convoy snaked through the Bukoto-Ntinda stretch before police blocked the road behind him, demanding he stop his supporters from following. Security forces unleashed gunfire and teargas to scatter the swelling crowds as the convoy snaked through the Ntinda-Nakawa stretch, only to face another roadblock at the traffic lights.
Police descended on the NUP supporters with batons, leaving many nursing wounds as the campaign trail turned into a battlefield.
Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, the NUP spokesperson, said they want the government to allowed then run their campaigns according to the law, just like other candidates.
“When Mr Museveni is using these roads, they block everyone such that he passes. For us, we are being blocked, and our people are being beaten. This is putting the electoral process of this country into question. We want a levelled ground for the elections,” he said.
Security personnel were unavailable to comment on the latest crackdown on Opposition supporters in Kampala Capital City.
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