Former musician and Uganda's political opposition figurehead Bobi WIne poses during a photo session in Paris
Credit: Joel Saget/AFP
When Ugandan presidential candidate Bobi Wine addressed a crowd in the eastern town of Mbale on Thursday it was more like a rockstar in his pomp than an election campaign stop.
Blocked by security forces from reaching the centre of town, a thousands-strong crowd of supporters cheered, sang, chanted and clapped at a decrepit sports ground on the edge of town when Wine, whose real name is Robert Kagyulanyi, dressed in bullet proof vest and ballistic helmet, clambered on top of a car and began a call and response.
“People power,” he called out. “Our power,” the jubilant crowd replied.
At home on any stage — be it a concert venue or car roof — the charismatic 38-year-old pop star-turned politician is proving to be an unexpectedly strong challenger to President Yoweri Museveni in polls set for 14 January.
But in scenes that have become emblematic of a bloody and chaotic eight-week campaign, as Wine’s convoy left Mbale they were engulfed in clouds of tear gas fired by police aiming to disrupt his program for the day and disperse his eager supporters.
Mr Museveni himself came to power not in an election but at the head of a rebel army following a brutal civil war, indeed the East African nation has never had a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.
Long before he was elected to parliament in 2017 Wine was known as “His Excellency, the Ghetto President”, a mark of respect for the one-time bad boy who grew up in one of the capital’s largest slums but matured into a thoughtful commentator on social ills and spread his message through lyrical Afrobeat music.
Face masks with two most popular candidates for Uganda's Presidential election, incumbent President Yoweri Museveni (R) and Bobi Wine
Credit: Sumy Sadurni/AFP
In the early days of his reign Mr Museveni himself recognised the dangers of autocracy.
“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power,” he wrote in 1986.
Now, 35 years later, having gutted the constitution of term and age limits, Mr Museveni is seeking another five years in office in what is increasingly likely to be a presidency for life for the 76-year-old who rules one of the world’s youngest populations.
In previous elections, US and EU observer missions have been highly critical of the process and the bias of the nominally independent Electoral Commission.
Observer mission recommendations aimed at eliminating ballot stuffing and electronic vote rigging have never been implemented, leading analysts to conclude that the lack of a level playing field all but guarantees a win for Mr Museveni.
“I’m a musician, yo, who became a spokesperson of my generation… they felt represented through my lyrics”, Wine explains in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph at his home outside the capital, Kampala, on Saturday.
“More than eighty five percent of our population have never seen another president. General Museveni connects with people aged seventy five and above. He’s a representation of history, I’m a representation of the future and we demand the right to live our own lives, to make our own mistakes, to write our own story.”
Using the pandemic as justification, state authorities announced stringent campaigning rules which initially appeared set to quieten Wine’s voice while rough tactics were employed to stop radio and television stations broadcasting his message.
However, to the consternation of the intelligence services, Wine’s crew of music producers and technicians quickly adapted and began live streaming their campaign on newly established YouTube channels and Facebook pages, prompting the government to unsuccessfully request the US-based tech companies censor them.
Bobi Wine (C) is escorted by policemen during his arrest in Kalangala in central Ugand
Credit: Stringer/Reuters
Ugandan political analyst Angelo Izama says that Bobi Wine’s popularity “represents — at a deep level — a structural shift, a generational shift” driven by urbanisation, demographics and sky-high youth unemployment.
That shift has important lessons for other societies led by strongmen who present themselves as their country’s only viable ruler.
Museveni has reacted to the challenge from the fresh young entertainer with “militarism on steroids” according to Izama.
From the governing National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party’s violent response “you would think there is a major insurrection underway, which is typical of late-stage autocracy” explains Izama.
That was evident during two days of unrest in November, triggered by Wine’s arrest on the pretext of violating coronavirus rules, when security forces killed at least 54 people in Kampala and surrounding towns.
Desperate for change, young demonstrators faced-off against heavily armed soldiers and burly gunmen in plainclothes with devastating consequences.
Protests from non-governmental organizations and foreign diplomats were dismissed by security chiefs and party apparatchiks but, in any event, Wine does not hold the professional civil society in high esteem.
A supporter of Bobi Wine the pop star-turned-opposition leader running for the presidency, carries his poster in front of the Buganda Palace, in Kampala
Credit: Sumy Sadurni/AFP
“I don’t see the professors, the doctors, the lawyers, those who studied economics and political science, I don’t see them” working for change, Wine said.
“I see them scared or compromised, complacent about the situation. But young, deprived people from the ghetto see that I’m not only talking about change, I am change, I represent change.”
The dynamics driving Uganda’s fraught election echo divisions in countries led by fellow strongmen from the Philippines’ brutal Rodrigo Duterte to Egypt’s general-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Disaffected youths yearn for fundamental change to drive improvements in public services and crack open money making opportunities monopolized by elite cartels, while older voters who value perceived stability and those who benefit from regime patronage argue the benefits of the status quo.
In Uganda the odds are stacked against a change at the top and as polling day draws near Bobi Wine reflects on an election campaign that has seen dozens killed, hundreds arrested and Wine’s children sent to the US for their safety.
“Many times I look around and think, oh my god, what the hell did I get myself into, what the hell did I get people’s children into?” Wine ponders.
“But I’m soon reminded that it’s all worth it. It’s more dangerous to do nothing”.
Свежие комментарии