Tue 03 November 2020:
Police on Tuesday detained Ugandan presidential aspirant Bobi Wine, his party said, just moments after the pop star-turned-politician registered his nomination to challenge Yoweri Museveni in next year’s election.
Wine, a 38-year-old opposition MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was forcefully pulled from his car and thrown into a van in Kampala after submitting his candidacy papers to election officials, his National Unity Party said.
The local NBS Television, reporting from the scene, said the singer was put into a police van amid violent scuffles between police and his supporters.
Police spokesman Luke Owoyesigire said he had yet to receive a briefing on the arrest and promised to comment later.
Wine, 38, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, aims to end President Yoweri Museveni’s 34 years in power, making him Africa’s third longest-ruling leader. Elections are scheduled for February next year.
Wine’s youthful age and his music have earned him a large following in the relatively young country of 42 million, rattling the governing National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and drawing a security crackdown on his supporters.
Wine, nicknamed the “Ghetto President”, has cultivated a popular youth following and has faced escalating police harassment since announcing his intention to challenge Museveni, who seized power at the head of a rebel army in 1986.
His concerts are routinely banned and public rallies broken up with teargas, and Wine himself is frequently detained.
Observers have said the opposition is weaker divided and unless a united front challenges Museveni he could be difficult to unseat.
Bobi Wine a musician, who put out a song in the early days of the pandemic encouraging people to wash their hands, has built up a following among Uganda’s younger voters – about 75 percent of the population is below 30.
Since Wine expressed his presidential ambition, police and the military have repeatedly dispersed his rallies and beaten and detained his supporters.
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