Bobi Wine has shaken up Ugandan politics: Four things worth knowing about him

Regardless of how Ugandans decide to vote in the January 14 presidential elections, the incumbent Yoweri Museveni will most likely be declared the winner. Museveni has ruled the country for five consecutive terms. He has historically been able to manipulate elections in his favour, because he controls Uganda’s military, judiciary, and Electoral Commission with an iron fist.

Throughout this electoral campaign, however, the long- standing Ugandan president has been upstaged by a formidable young challenger: popular musician- turned- parliamentarian Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine. Since being elected as a Member of Parliament in 2017, the 38- year- old leader of the National Unity Platform has become the new face of Uganda’s opposition.

There are four things worth knowing about Bobi Wine and Uganda’s politics.

Building a movement, defying expectations

Bobi Wine has repeatedly been underestimated by government supporters and critics since he first ran for parliament. He was forced to run as an independent after the two major opposition parties, the Forum for Democratic Change and the Democratic Party, turned him away.

He nevertheless easily won the by- election in the Kyandondo East constituency within Kampala with 78 percent of the vote. Since then, he has proved himself to be a skilled politician who has successfully built a strong political movement – from scratch.

Within his first two years in office, he forged a reputation as a principled and fearless opponent of Museveni’s policies. He was a leading voice against the president’s ultimately successful effort to remove presidential age limits from the constitution. He also led protests against the government’s proposed tax on social media in July 2018.

Over the course of that same year, he endorsed opposition candidates who went on to win four consecutive parliamentary by- elections.

By 2018, he had created a political pressure group called People Power, Our Power. When the government blocked its registration as a formal political party, Bobi Wine outmanoeuvred the Electoral Commission by aligning himself with a smaller, pre- existing one, which he re- christened as the National Unity Platform. Almost immediately more than 20 MPs left more established opposition parties to join his party.

A target of unprecedented state repression

Bobi Wine has been a regular target of state repression.

The Museveni regime responded to his early successes by repeatedly blocking him from holding concerts and banning the public from wearing People Power’s trademark red berets.

Since being elected, Bobi Wine has been arrested countless times. He has never been convicted on any of the charges. Some of his movement’s members and supporters have been killed, sometimes in suspicious circumstances.

Many have been arrested. Perhaps most notoriously, in August 2018, as he campaigned for a fellow independent candidate in a by- election in Arua in northwestern Uganda, Bobi Wine and at least 35 of his political associates were arrested following dubious reports that Museveni’s motorcade had been stoned. That same night the opposition leader’s driver, Yasin Kawuma, was murdered with a bullet that Bobi Wine believes was intended for him.

Bobi Wine has repeatedly been underestimated by government supporters and critics since he first ran for parliament. He was forced to run as an independent after the two major opposition parties, the Forum for Democratic Change and the Democratic Party, turned him away.

In the aftermath of these arrests, the Kyadondo East MP was charged with treason and possession of illegal firearms. Over his next ten days in custody, he was beaten so brutally by government security forces that he could not stand, sit or walk. He eventually sought treatment for his injuries in the US.

International outrage at this incident has not stopped the Museveni regime from escalating its tactics of repression during this election cycle.

The arrests have continued unabated throughout the current campaign. In addition, campaign rallies have been