Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (left) and his main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
Uganda’s opposition candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, has struggled to keep up a campaign. Sometimes his convoy is diverted from the venue, arriving late at rallies. In some cases, security agents have beat up people gathering at venues.
On other occasions, his communication facilities are throttled. Ugandan Communication Commission officials officially deny cutting any communications for anyone.
This week, when we spoke to him virtually, his signal was shaky, which he attributed to military vehicles jamming the network outside his house in Kampala.
Bobi Wine, a popstar, is among seven contenders challenging incumbent Yoweri Museveni when elections come up next week on January 15. But jamming frustrations on the campaign trail form just one form of rights violations.
“First of all, I’m thankful that I’m still alive,” Bobi told the Nation on Wednesday.
Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, addresses the media at his home in Wakiso, Uganda on January 8, 2021.
“It has been a huge challenge. This is meant to be a presidential campaign, but honestly, it has been more or less, war pitted by the police and military, which is clearly biased.
“We have lost so many, so many friends who have been killed. Some have been shot with live bullets and others ran over by police and military trucks. More than 550 of our comrades are in prison, my entire campaign team has been arrested and arraigned in different courts across the country.”
The 43-year-old, former MP for Kyadondo East Constituency in Kampala, says he faces opposition right from wearing his party’s insignia to flaunting the party’s colours. Security agencies have since considered them militaristic.
“Many of us must have heard the stories of the Idi Amin days; when people were picked from their houses and their bodies found in rivers and swamps. That is exactly what is happening,” he said, referring to a former Ugandan dictator.
"Museveni’s rise in revolutionary warfare was partly inspired by Amin’s brutality. When he won the war and became president in 1986, he promised to end that. Bobi Wine says, however, that the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the ruling party, itself has perfected its version of brutality against critics.
Some eight candidates are competing in the presidential race, although about 83,000 contenders are chasing 45,000 slots across the entire elections from grassroots to the presidency.
Bobi Wine is attempting for the second time, having come second to Museveni in 2021. But one of the veterans in this race, Kizza Besigye, remains detained, accused of crimes against the state, including treason. His case has become a blot on the overall human rights record in a campaign season,and rights activists say they have been targeted.
Amnesty International on Monday called out the government of Uganda for meting out violence on the opposition and their supporters.
"The authorities have launched a brutal campaign of repression against the opposition and its supporters, making it extremely difficult for them to exercise their rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly," said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty's regional director for east and southern Africa.
“The Ugandan authorities must uphold their human rights obligations and allow the opposition to hold its campaign rallies without undue restrictions and without subjecting their leaders and supporters to arrests, torture or other ill-treatment.”
A spokesperson for the NRM rejected accusations that his party is favoured, saying that supporters of the ruling party have been beaten too. However, the party argued no one should be above the law, saying there exist channels for filing complaints, rather than blame games. In December, Ugandan President Museveni warned opposition supporters against provoking the police.
This week, civic groups across East Africa have condemned Uganda’s detention of Dr Sarah Bireete, a Ugandan activist who has been held in Kampala since December.
In a joint statement, they said the continued detention of Dr Sarah Bireete, President of the East African Civil Society Organisations’ Forum (EACSOF), violated her civic rights, ahead of Uganda’s General Election due on January 15.
Dr Bireete, arrested on December 30, was remanded for 20 days by the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court on 3 January to allow the prosecution time to respond to her bail application. She is currently being held at Luzira Prison.
She had alerted the public through a social media post stating that her home was “under siege by police and army.” Authorities later confirmed her arrest, accusing her of unlawfully obtaining or disclosing voters’ data.
She isn’t the only one.
“Today, citizens of Uganda are abducted and found dead. Women are abducted and raped in custody. The military is largely in charge, not just of the election but of the country and we have the worst human rights situation we have ever had in years,” Bobi Wine says.
“We have called this a protest vote. Our message is active citizen participation. We know that elections have been rigged because the government had the luxury of using COVID as an excuse, but there is no COVID this time round although they are behaving like there still is.
Uganda’s Presidential candidates
- Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – National Resistance Movement (NRM)
- Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi – National Unity Platform (NUP)
- Mugisha Gregory Muntu – Alliance for National Transformation (ANT)
- Nandala Mafabi James – Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)
- Joseph Mabirizi – Conservative Party
- Robert Kasibante – National Peasants Party
- Mubarak Munyagwa – Common Man’s Party
- Frank Bulira – Revolutionary People’s Party
