Uganda Police have refuted claims that opposition leader Bobi Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Robert, was shot while returning from a Thanksgiving event in Bulindo, Kiira Municipality, Wakiso District.

Contrary to the National Unity Platform (NUP)’s assertions of an assassination attempt on Wine, police assert that his injury was caused by a stumble as he was getting into his vehicle, witnessed by officers at the scene.

Wine had been invited to the event by lawyer George Musisi, according to the police. The ceremony reportedly ended without any disturbances. However, tensions escalated when Wine and his team initiated a procession through Bulindo town, despite police advice against it.

“Today, September 3, 2024, Hon. Kyagulanyi Robert was invited by Mr. George Musisi (lawyer) to a Thanksgiving ceremony in Bulindo, Kiira Municipality, Wakiso District. Hon. Kyagulanyi participated in the celebration, which concluded peacefully. When Hon. Kyagulanyi left the venue, he and his team moved out of their cars and embarked on a procession up to Bulindo town; however, the police advised against it,” the police statement disclosed.

The statement continued, highlighting that despite police instructions, Wine persisted in proceeding with the procession, prompting police intervention.

During the confrontation that ensued, Wine sustained injuries. Police maintain that Wine’s injury was due to a fall while getting into his vehicle, whereas Wine and his team allege that he was shot.

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“During the ensuing altercation, it is alleged that he sustained injuries. Police officers on site claim he stumbled while getting into his vehicle, causing the injury, whereas Hon. Kyagulanyi and his team assert that he was shot,” the police added.

The police have announced an investigation to determine the facts surrounding the incident.

Wine was taken to Najaeem Medical Centre in Bulindo for first aid. The police have also stated their intent to investigate the alleged shooting and any related events.

In contrast, a statement on Wine’s official X account claimed that police and military forces surrounded their vehicles and fired live bullets, resulting in Wine being shot in the leg.

“This evening, as our President returned from Bulindo in Kira Municipality, where he had gone to check on one of our lawyers, Musisi George, the police and military under the command of one Twesigye surrounded our vehicles and started firing live bullets, teargas canisters, and other projectiles.

“In the process, our President Wine, who was targeted, was shot in the leg. He is currently being attended to by a team of medical doctors. This is yet another attempt on the life of our President by the Museveni regime!” the statement from Bobi Wine’s account read.

WATCH:

Uganda Police Deny Bobi Wine Shooting Claims: “Shoot Him” Video Surfaces

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Vocal Ugandan musician and political activist Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu better known as Bobi Wine has revealed that he is in support of the ongoing anti-Finance Bill in Kenya.

In a statement published on Sunday, June 23, 2024, on his official social media page, Bobi Wine commended the Kenyan youths for going out to the streets to exercise their democratic rights.

Expressing his admiration for the anti-Finance Bill protesters, Bobi Wine revealed that the voices of the demonstrators are being heard beyond Kenyan borders.

“Power to you the young people of Kenya. You are speaking up and your voices are being heard far beyond the Kenyan borders, “Bobi Wine said.

The vocal musician stated that he hopes the voices of the demonstrators will be heard by the Kenyan government adding that he will continue to stand in solidarity with the anti-Finance Bill protesters.

“We hope your leaders too are listening! We continue to stand in solidarity with you. Viva,” he said.

Power to you the young people of Kenya. You are speaking up and your voices are being heard far beyond the Kenyan borders. We hope your leaders too are listening! We continue to stand in solidarity with you. Viva pic.twitter.com/mbcjRtz9wq

— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) June 23, 2024

Anti-Finance Bill protest

The ongoing anti-Finance Bill protest which started on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Nairobi County has seen major residents from major towns across the country including Mombasa, Kakamega, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Kisii, Embu and Nanyuki join.

On Friday, June 22, 2024, human rights activist Boniface Mwangi, outlined the seven-day anti-Finance Bill demonstration action plan.

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“We refuse to be silenced, so we’re marching on… Day 1. Friday, 21st June: After the City Mortuary, attend Juma prayers at Jamia Mosque, and give water to those leaving after the prayers. Day 2. Saturday 22nd June: At midnight, all bars and clubs where Gen Z frequent will stop the music to listen to a national crescendo of Ruto Must Go, and Reject the Finance Bill. Day 3. Sunday 23rd June: Deplatform politicians in church. Don’t allow any politician who voted YES to speak in your church,” he said.

“Day 4. Monday 24th June: Make a courtesy call on MPs who voted ‘Yes’ at the constituency office. Tell them: Endelea hivyo hivyo! Boycott the businesses of these traitors. Ostracise them for betraying 54 million Kenyans. Start collecting signatures to recall them. Day 5. Tuesday 25th June: #OccupyParliament and Total Shutdown Kenya. A national strike. Gen Z is granting all hard-working Kenyans a day off. Parents keep your children at home in solidarity. Day 6. Wednesday, 26th June: Justice for Rex. Visit IPOA and the IG of Police demanding #JusticeForRex Day 7. Thursday, 27th June: Block main roads leading to Nairobi and #OccupyStateHouse to witness Ruto sign our lives into slavery. #TotalShutDownKE.”

The activist also condemned police brutality and interference with the ongoing peaceful protest.

“And despite our peaceful protests, police have responded with bullets, killing two of our own, maiming many others and one person is in critical condition,” he said.

These demonstrators are protesting against the Finance Bill which has proposed additional taxes on already-burdened taxpayers.

However despite public rejection, the Parliament On June 21, 2024, 204 Members of Parliament okayed the controversial Bill to go to the second reading.

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine stands in solidarity with Kenyan Youths in Anti-Finance Bill Protests

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Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 15.9 years. Young people aged below 30 make up about 77 percent of the country’s population of 47 million people. 

Young people have legitimate and wide-ranging grievances, from unemployment to disenfranchisement. Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work.

Yet, young people in Uganda haven’t coalesced as an electoral bloc. This is despite the emergence of a presidential candidate who champions youth issues. In the last presidential election in 2021, those aged between 18 and 30 made up 41 percent of the total voter roll of 18 million.

Robert Kyagulanyi, the 41-year-old musician-turned-politician popularly known as Bobi Wine, leads the National Unity Platform. It is Uganda’s largest opposition party, known for its youth appeal. 

Bobi Wine’s run for the presidency in the 2021 election highlights the reality that capturing the youth vote in Uganda is complex. And that this broad category and the role it plays in Ugandan politics is poorly understood.

As it is, the term “youth” lacks a clear definition. Uganda’s government defines the youth as those aged between 18 and 30.

However, in practice, the “youth” category is much more amorphous. It tends to encompass those who are no longer considered children but haven’t yet realized the “social markers” that signify adulthood. These include financial independence, marriage, and children.

The outcome of the 2021 elections defied expectations, given Uganda’s large and underemployed youth population and the emergence of Bobi Wine. In a recent paper, we examined youth political mobilization in this election.

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Despite widespread “youth wave” optimism, we identified diverse, embedded strategies and tactics from the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, that obstructed Bobi Wine’s efforts to build a powerful national youth constituency.

The strategies were:

• The structural capture of youth representation in Ugandan politics.
• Diverse economic incentives for political loyalty in the form of loan schemes, grants, and short-term employment.
• Well-spun political narratives that draw on entrenched views of youth as beholden to their elders and the state.

New wine, old bottles

When Bobi Wine ran in the presidential election, he was aged 38. Commentators worldwide suggested his candidacy represented a real and unprecedented threat to Yoweri Museveni’s longstanding rule. Museveni, 79, has been Uganda’s president since 1986.

Bobi Wine got 35 percent of the vote. This is about the same proportion of votes that has accrued to the main opposition candidates in Uganda since multi-party elections resumed in 2006. For a new entrant on the political scene, this was an impressive achievement – particularly in the light of political repression and patronage that make the playing field far from fair in Uganda.

Bobi Wine’s violent arrest in November 2020 gained international attention, as did the government’s aggressive response to protests calling for his release.

These resulted in the death of at least 54 National Unity Platform supporters. Security forces perpetrated widespread violence and human rights abuses in the run-up to the election.

On the eve of the election, the government ordered a five-day internet shutdown. There were also reports of the ruling party dishing out money to potential voters, with instructions to vote for Museveni.

Our research reviewed Ugandan history since its independence from the British in 1962. We found that the possibility of a national youth constituency had been a concern of Uganda’s post-colonial governments.

Regimes have long sought to integrate the youth into their political project while keeping them fragmented and regionally embedded to prevent broader political mobilization.

Contemporary tactics used by the ruling party to co-opt the youth converge with these historically rooted methods of regime consolidation.

Splitting the youth

The National Resistance Movement has an elaborate set of measures in place -from the state level to the villages – to prevent youth discontent from becoming a national political threat.

First, the youth are organized into a “special interest group” reinforced through quota systems. These are closely allied with the ruling party’s leadership. Political structures, such as youth MPs and representatives, absorb youth representation under regime authority and entrench regional divisions.

Second, the ruling party uses patronage networks and tactics to mobilize young voters. It offers economic rewards for allegiance and generous material compensation for “party-switching” – which is when supporters defect from the opposition to the National Resistance Movement, often quite publicly.

Ahead of the 2021 election, Museveni gave state appointments to popular musicians with wide youth appeal who had been working closely with Bobi Wine’s party.

The ruling party also offers young people economic incentives during campaigns. These include short-term employment, loans, and cash handouts. Youth are often recruited as election workers, special police constables, and crime preventers. 

In these short-term positions, tens of thousands of youth survey their communities and share local intelligence with the authorities, acting as the state’s eyes and ears at a village level.

 Among young, economically precarious men, this is seen as an opportunity, even though they become engaged in supporting the re-election of a regime they may oppose.

Third, during the last election, campaign observers were optimistic about the power of social media to amplify Bobi Wine’s message and increase support. But social media is also a tool the National Resistance Movement uses adeptly.

Beyond internet shutdowns and disinformation campaigns, we found that Museveni and the National Resistance Movement used social media channels to promote powerful narratives that linked social order and prosperity to a culture of gerontocracy. This refers to a system of governance in which older people dominate.

What hope for Bobi Wine?

Well-developed structures, practices, and narratives that fragment national youth mobilization have been seen in recent Ugandan history. In northern Uganda, for example, young people have lived through a recent history of devastating conflict and still struggle with its legacies.

This, combined with long-standing regional and ethnic tensions throughout the country, means that his opponents often describe Bobi Wine first as a political agitator who could tear the country apart, not as the youth’s best chance for political liberation and progress.

Against this backdrop, if Bobi Wine contests in 2026, he is likely to struggle again. He may attract global media attention, but Museveni and the National Resistance Movement are familiar with his brand of “defiance-based” opposition politics.

As commentators increasingly note, the big question remains whether Bobi Wine and the National Unity Platform, without experience in government and in the absence of strong links to powerful military and state players, can realistically achieve a political transition in Uganda.

The overall picture is one in which the elite have long seen the youth as an important resource and potential threat – and as such fear and value them. While Uganda’s young people have real and legitimate grievances, they lack modes of political and social organization – by long-standing design.

How Museveni keeps Bobi Wine in check

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