by ANN GARRISON
US elites may see the writing on the wall in Uganda, where the youth majority population are braving police blockades and bullets to rally behind Bobi Wine.
“The dictator is worried about what will happen if he rigs and steals the election this time.”
Bobi Wine’s full name is Robert Kyagulanyi . The 38-year-old pop star, parliamentarian, and presidential candidate is also known as the ghetto president. In 2017, he won a parliamentary seat by a wide margin, after a door-to-door campaign to his constituency in Kampala’s capital.
In July 2018, Ugandan military police arrested him while he was campaigning for another parliamentary candidate and beat him so badly that he left jail leaning on a cane and the shoulders of a fellow party member. Nevertheless, on November 3, Wine declared himself a candidate for president, announcing that he would run against General Yoweri Museveni, who has held a grip on power in Uganda for the past 34 years. Ugandans will go to the polls on January 14, 2021.
On Wednesday, November 17, Uganda’s military police arrested Wine again, and did not release him until Friday. During that time protest erupted across the country and police shot to kill. On November 20, the New York Times reported that at least 28 protestors had been shot dead while Aljazeera reported 37 and still counting. The Times reported 600 arrested. On November 24, Ghetto TV Uganda , the media outlet of the political party that Bobi Wine now leads, reported that fatalities had risen to 45 and published a video, which they said evidenced police “firing into crowded slums.” CNN broadcast Ghetto TV Uganda’s report.
I spoke to Ugandan American journalist, Black Star News Publisher, and City University of New York African Studies Professor Milton Allimadi about Bobi Wine’s challenge to President Yoweri Museveni.
ANN GARRISON: Milton, 45 is a shocking number of protestors shot dead. If this had happened in the course of a presidential election here we would think we were in an unprecedented national crisis. And in the Ugandan context, this is far more state violence than was seen during the 2011 and 2016 presidential elections. Is that because Bobi Wine poses a greater threat to Museveni than his challengers in those years?
MILTON ALLIMADI: Yes, 45 is a shocking number and that’s in response to just one incident. Forty-five may not even be the total number. We don’t know. Some of the bodies were carried away by some of Museveni’s brutal security officers. And yes, Bobi Wine does represent a special challenge to Museveni, for one because he is representing the youth who are coming out in tens of thousands throughout the country. So I think the dictator is worried about what will happen if he rigs and steals the election this time.
What will happen the next day? Will his security forces be able to contain and suppress an uprising of young people in the streets all over the country? I think that by sending his police out with shoot-to-kill orders he was trying to set an example of what will happen in January, letting people know that they will risk their lives if they take to the streets to protest fraudulent election results.
AG: What do you think of Bobi Wine?
MA: Well, Bobi Wine is the voice of the youth. He is the voice of his generation. He is 38 years old. And as you know, 80% of the Ugandan population is younger than 35. Bobi Wine speaks their language, the language of the youth.
And how can you tell the dictator is worried about this? Some months ago, he started distributing videos of himself, allegedly doing pushups and trying to prove that he can still do 40 pushups. Whether those videotapes were faked or not is irrelevant. The point is he is trying to demonstrate that he is not this aging dictator. His official age is 76, but he could well be in his eighties.
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