2021 polls: Bobi Wine urges foreign governments to keep an eye on Uganda

Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • This comes after Bobi Wine and other Opposition leaders have been labelled foreign agents by President Museveni and other leaders in the ruling NRM regime.

Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, has called on the international community to keep an eye on Uganda in the face of increasing cases of human rights violations ahead of 2021 elections.
“We appreciate all individuals, organisations, governments and international bodies that are responding to the cries of the oppressed people of Uganda. Like all dictators, Museveni would want the people of Uganda to suffer in silence and in darkness. But thanks to social media and other avenues, his violations have gone out into the world and democracy loving people in the entire world are responding,” Bobi Wine’s statement issued early this week reads in part.

“I, therefore, continue to call upon the friends of Uganda to keep your eyes on Uganda. We shall not stop knocking on doors of all who love and are willing to support good governance. As the People Power movement, we believe in relationships, which are not only based on mutual economic interests, but on shared values as well,” he added.
However, the deputy executive director of the Uganda Media Centre, Col (Rtd) Shaban Bantariza, said Bobi Wine should concentrate on capturing power rather than calling on foreigners to supervise a sovereign state.
“How does this help him capture power? His call is out of futility and foreigners cannot supervise this country,” Col Shaban said in an interview.

Background
This comes after Bobi Wine and other Opposition leaders have been labelled foreign agents by President Museveni and other leaders in the ruling NRM regime.

In his statement, Bobi Wine said he was responding to Mr Museveni who has castigated the Opposition for seeking assistance from foreigners yet he also went around the world in the 1980s, seeking support for his Bush War.
“Well, I have interacted with some of these foreign people who supported his Bush War, and like those who fought alongside him, they reflect in wonder about how they were duped. They speak of how the man pleaded with them and convinced them about his democratic credentials. They wonder how they were unable to detect the fraud,” he said in the statement.

Information minister Frank Tumwebaze said: “Foreign countries have never managed Uganda. So if his hope to advance his ambitions is dependent on foreign countries, he will be disappointed. The human rights of Ugandans were fought for and guaranteed by Ugandan patriots of the NRM and not the foreigners he is depending on to catapult him. To the contrary, those foreigners supported human rights violators like (Idi) Amin.”

Bobi Wine also asked the President to produce the person who shot dead his former driver Yasin Kawuma during the Arua fracas.
He also asked Mr Museveni to come clean on who owns the safe houses where many innocent Ugandans are allegedly being tortured.
Without explaining and giving details, Bobi Wine claimed that government has hatched a plan to block him from running in the 2021 presidential elections.
“You can imagine the preposterousness,” he said.