KAMPALA – Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine has said he is concerned about his life now that he has declared his intention to run for president.
Bobi Wine said he survived death at the hands of soldiers during the violence ahead of the Arua municipality by-election in August 2018 and that now the ruling NRM party views him as a threat to their stay in power.
“There has never been a threat to this regime like the threat we pose to it today as a generation,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press (AP).
“I live every day as it comes, not being sure of the next day. I am not blind to the fact that the regime wants me dead and wants me dead as soon as possible,” he is quoted as saying.
The artiste-cum politician has already borne the wrath of the regime, which has blocked his music concerts, in what he views as an attempt to cripple him financially. Authorities insist such action is necessary in order to protect public order.
“We know that the regime is going to try anything within their reach to block us from contesting,” Bobi Wine is quoted as saying by AP.
He was recently arrested and charged over inciting violence in connecting to holding a demonstration against social media tax in 2018. He is also battling treason charges, alongside fellow MPs and other citizens, stemming from his alleged role in the incident in which the president’s convoy was attacked with stones during the Arua violence. Prosecutors added additional charges of annoying the president over that incident. He denies all the charges.
Despite all these, Bobi Wine said his aim is create Bobi Wines under his People Power movement.
“Power has been taken away from the people by those that wield guns, and that’s what we want to put an end to through the vote. My aim is to multiply myself in various young men and women so that there are as many Bobi Wines as possible,” he is quoted as saying.
Uganda has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power since the East African country gained independence from Britain in 1962. President Museveni accuses Bobi Wine and other opposition figures of trying to lure young people into deadly rioting.
