From entertaining his dancehall fans with booming tunes modelled with Jamaican feel, hitting streets in championing for the rights of ordinary Ugandans in the ghetto, and now donning helmets and bullet proof vests while searching his way to presidency—Bobi Wine has come a long way.

The Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine eyes a date with fate come January 14, when he will be staging an upset against incumbent President Yoweri Museveni in the race for the top seat.

The self-styled Ghetto President shot to even more fame when he started raising his critical voice against President Museveni’s regime after he was elected as a member of parliament in 2017. In that election he outmuscled seasoned politicians like NRM’s Sitenda Sebalu and Apollo Kantinti of opposition party FDC.

Bobi, 38, would then mushroom into a full-blown vocal politician ready to make an upset in a country seen as a police state, where critics are muzzled by brutality. The ‘People Power Our, Power’ movement was born.

String of arrests

He successfully campaigned for Kassiano Wadri—an independent candidate who won the Arau by-election in 2018—at the expense of Museveni’s candidate. And, what ensued was a baptism of fire. Wine was arrested on August 15, 2018, and charged with incitement and unlawful possession of firearm.

He was produced in General Court Martial five days later looking tortured, sickly and frustrated before got his freedom. In August 2019, Wine would then be charged with an ‘intent to alarm, annoy and ridicule’ president Museveni. During this time, Wine had lost a close friend in Ziggy Wine—another musician who criticised the regime. Ziggy was kidnapped and tortured to death by unknown assailants.

Wine spent time in remand at Luzira Maximum Security Prison until he was released on bail. His arrest and detention attracted outburst from the human rights organisations like the Amnesty International.  Earlier in the year, the Ugandan government had passed a social media tax that was widely seen as an attempt to clamp down on the people’s freedom of speech. On the flipside, the Ugandan government accused him of inciting people to rebel against the government over the social media taxes.

He grew into the echelons of fame and so were the deepening of his troubles as he frequented the custody of the police.

He joined the National Unity Party, a vehicle that he would use to face the tides by making a shot at the presidency. By his side were his supporters. Baying for his blood were his enemies but by the lens of the analysts, he was replacing the veteran opposition icon Dr Kizza Besigye who unsuccessfully tried to uproot Museveni regime.

2020 campaigns

With electoral year inching every minute, 2020 ended up a year that Mr Kyagulanyi could relish and curse in equal measure. While it remains the year that he achieved certain political milestones, inking his name on the Ugandan political files; Kyagulanyi also suffered a great deal at the marauding knuckles of the police.

On November 6, 2020, the NUP flag bearer got formal clearance from the Ugandan electoral commission to vie for presidency. And when time came to give his acceptance speech, he did not mince his words. He declared ‘declared that was ready to save Museveni too.’

What followed the clearance was a circus as the police prevented him from addressing his supporters. Days of his campaign were rocky. His supporters bore the brunt of brutal tendencies of the police who often accused them of defying COVID-19 rules. But on the other hand, NRM supporters enjoyed the political serenity often being escorted to political rallies of President Museveni unscathed.

Bobi Wine’s one darkest moment dawned on him on December 27, 2020, after a military truck ran over and killed his bodyguard Francis Senteza. Journalists were also wounded in the process. State officers accused his supporters of hooliganism even as Kampala was left reeling from the ruins of the bullets and smoke and followed strings of protest.

President Museveni has described Wine as a person with empty promises while Wine holds the hope that Ugandans will help him prevail.