Bobi Wine entertains Luweero residents during a public dialogue on eliminating corruption and reducing pov- erty by 2015. The dialogue was organised by the Global Call to Action member organ- isation at Wobulenzi Taxi Park on October 17, 2008. PHOTO/ FILE
Politics was always on the menu whenever Bobi Wine, Nubian Li, Eddie Mutwe and peers met, whether on a music trip to Arua, Masaka, or Jinja. Nevertheless, the Fire Base Crew only dabbled in the political arena. But once they saw a Monitor banner – Kyadondo East MP loses seat in April 2017 – it changed the course of their lives.
Barely a year into Parliament, Bobi , the crew leading light, became public enemy number one for taunting President Museveni through his revolutionary music and vowing to oust him.
Following the chaotic Arua by-election in August 2018, where Bobi’s driver Yasiin Kawuma was shot dead and Bobi and his allies tortured and detained, the hostility between the State and the man once their ghetto ally, heightened and reached irreversible levels.
The State was determined to muffle Bobi’s revolutionary tenor, but gave him one more chance at the 2018 Enkuuka festival. But Bobi remained unyielding and persisted in doing what he was stopped from doing – singing politics.
“President [Museveni] swore that Bobi would never perform again in Uganda because he chose politics,” Mr Juma Balunywa, a renowned promoter, says. Enkuuka, the Buganda year-ending event in Lubiri, attracts between 45,000 and 60,000 revellers.
Since Bobi entered Parliament, he used the event to criticise Mr Museveni’s regime. But in 2018, he did it with unrestrained abandon.
“‘I allowed Bobi to perform because the Kabaka had requested me. But he chose to embarrass me in front of the Kabaka. I’ll never let him perform here again’,” Mr Balunywa quoted an angry Museveni in a meeting with performing artistes, where he compensated promoters with Shs1.8b for Bobi’s cancelled concerts.
Six years later, Bobi’s return to the local stage remains an illusion despite a High Court ruling in 2020 that declared the police was wrong in blocking Bobi’s concerts.
Bobi Wine is a celebrated artiste and is also known by another moniker “Ghetto President” as many say his songs resonate with the ordinary, struggling Ugandan citizen. PHOTO/FILE
Bobi versus Kyagulanyi
Mr Frank Mwesigwa, who was then Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander, said the police were preventing Kyagulanyi from inciting violence through his concerts.
“We have noticed that Bobi Wine has been turning into Honourable Kyagulanyi to make political statements at music shows. That’s not what we agreed upon,” Mr Mwesigwa said.
But it seems both the State and Bobi adeptly use the Bobi versus Kyagulanyi narrative for their gain. NUP party Secretary General Lewis Rubongoya, in an attempt to define Bobi’s performance during a London concert last year, where Bobi taunted his political opponents, including “traitors” in his own party, said: “The party President is Kyagulanyi and the person singing in London is Bobi. As an artiste, I think he’s free to make any comments as he wishes.”
So, amid the fuzzy line between Bobi the defiant artiste and Kyagulanyi the critical politician, can Bobi beat the odds and hit the local stage again? “Why not?” says Mr Tshaka Mayanja, a veteran musician and promoter.
“As long as he’s alive.” But just how achievable is this? Mr Eddie Ssendi, a music critic, agrees and says: “If he [Bobi] accepts to toe the line preferred by the government.”
This concession and likely turnaround in Bobi’s fortune is corroborated by Mr Balaam Barugahara, Bobi’s longtime promoter, now Youth and Children Affairs minister. He promises Bobi a windfall should he quit political activism and reverts to his apolitical music.
“I’ll ask Mzee [President Museveni] to pardon him. I’ll also get him gigs to sing for the President and he can get good money,” Mr Barugahara says in his trademark casual tone.
Artistes have no obligation not to sing truth to power, but Bobi has lost his freedom to sing as he desires. Nonetheless, he stands steadfast.
“People expect more revolutionary music from me,” he told Rolling Stone in 2020. A few weeks later, Bobi posted a portrait of himself standing beside a Miriam Makeba mural on his Facebook page that has 2.5m followers: “I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.” But the State wants Bobi, the torch-bearer of the Opposition, to draw a distinct line between music and political activism. It is a catch-22 for Bobi – sing defiance and stay a marked man, or tone down in exchange for freedom and be labelled “a traitor Museveni project”. This was the dilemma artiste Ronald Mayinja found himself boxed into.
Bobi Wine performs to the crowd. Photo by Micheal Kakumirizi
Once famed for his songs – Africa (Is helpless), Tuli ku bunkenke (Times are tense), Tuwalana Nguzi (We hate corruption), Bizzeemu (Misrule has returned), Mayinja made an about-turn with Mzee Akalulu , assuring Museveni of the 2021 vote.
But Mr Philip Luswata, a theatre activist and lecturer at Makerere University, sees a way out.
First, he says a song or piece of art doesn’t necessarily have to be political to cause change.
“See how Unbwogable propelled Mwai Kibaki into power,” he says. The 2002 hit song, Unbwogable, variously rendered as unshakeable, unbeatable, or unstoppable, was about the personal frustrations of the two hustlers who nearly gave up on music because they weren’t making money.
But their song became a hit and the Kibaki team bought it for Kshs800,000 as its campaign song. (The artistes allegedly rejected a Ksh10m offer to sing another song praising Daniel arap Moi’s Kanu).
Unbwogable changed the fortune of the artistes and that of Kenya, ending Moi’s 24-year iron hold onto power.
Mr Luswata says Bobi’s striking the nail on the head has backfired, but advises that Bobi can go indirect, without abandoning the struggle.
Case of juggling two wives?
Sanctions aside, can Bobi juggle revolutionary politics and an active music career? “It’s hard,” Ndausi says, “because politics is a much wider field and so demanding that he can’t have enough time for music.”
Mr Isaac Katende, alias Kasuku, an entertainment critic, agrees. “I don’t even think Bobi is still interested in music. He’s more preoccupied with: how do we win the election, and stuff like that. How can he be thinking about a Shs5m gig? Unless it’s for political gain. But the Bobi I know can’t perform for free, especially now that he’s the political magnet.”
But Bobi’s young brother and music manager, Mr Johnson Ssentamu, disagrees. He says performing was never just about entertainment for Bobi but also a way to connect with the people, and raise their consciousness.
“That bond with his fans is irreplaceable and being kept away from the stage only deepens that longing,” he says.
Despite the leadership responsibilities, Mr Ssentamu adds Bobi is a master of balance. “And to him, music isn’t a distraction, but part of the mission.”
But as Nigerian musician and politician Juwon Olorunnipa, alias Jumabee, confessed recently, it’s a delicate balance.
He compares his music-politics career to “marrying two wives”, because both careers demand undivided attention, which is quite taxing. “One must suffer for one,” he told the press.
What’s more, Mr Luswata says the music-politics relationship isn’t mutual. “You can use art to push your political agenda but you can’t use politics to push your art. Because politics is by all means sectarian.”
Perhaps Bobi knows this and wants the chance to try as Jumabee did, using his dual identity to lobby for his deprived Kogi state.
In a tense debate with Mr Simon Njala Kaggwa on NBS TV, days before Enkuuka 2018, his last stage performance, Bobi decried discrimination and yet other Opposition politicians have thriving businesses.
Even as Mr Njala pressed Bobi, accusing him of spreading discord, Bobi countered: “I am consciously awakening the masses...It’s the police and the regime who are defying the law of the land.”
Maybe you ought to tone down, Mr Njala suggests, but Bobi is adamant: “No way. I’m a leader just like them. My role is to check them.”
Bobi has refused to beg for his rights.
“We believe that time and truth have a way of correcting injustice,” his manager said. “Time will come and Bobi will return to the stage, not just as an artiste, but as a symbol.”
Bobi Wine on stage at his Kyarenga concert in 2018. FILE PHOTO
Asking price
Kasuku also attributes the impossibility of Bobi’s return to his asking price. “No local promoter can afford Bobi. Did you know that he bagged almost Shs140m to perform in London?” Kasuku says.
We couldn’t independently verify this claim.
“They hiked the ticket prices but in Uganda, who will buy an ordinary ticket at Shs50,000?” Mr Abbey Musinguzi, aka Abtex, of Abtex Promotions, told us everything was set for Bobi to perform at Enkuuka 2023.
“We had agreed on Shs50m as his booking fee.” On December 28, Bobi had to post: Ngenda Kuyimbira Kabaka Wange mu Nkuuka. (I’m going to sing for my Kabaka at Enkuuka).
But, Abtex said, Bobi didn’t show up, citing rumours of an assassination attempt on him at the event.
“But those were flimsy excuses. I think he just got selfish,” Abtex told us.
“I was embarrassed; the crowds got agitated.” He said Bobi wasted a golden opportunity.
“Had he performed again after five years, it would have been news forever. Likewise, had he been blocked, politically, he would have scored highly.” Bobi’s manager did not comment on this. Abtex doesn’t expect to work with Bobi again, but said nowadays, only two venues can host a Bobi concert – Busaabala and Namboole.
“And be ready to pay Bobi between Shs300m and Shs500m.” “If you stand for the truth, you better be ready to stand alone,” Bobi sang in Byekwaso.
But when Ugandans eventually get the guts to sing against the oppression of whatever regime, at concerts, schools, theatres, funerals or wherever, like South Africans and their international allies did in the 1980s, until the granite walls of apartheid crumbled, Bobi, dead or alive, will deserve the medal for starting a struggle many couldn’t risk.
The cost
Bobi Wine was a direct rival of Jose Chameleone and Bebe Cool as the top three artistes in Uganda. Joining Opposition politics blew his ratings to astronomical heights. And by late 2018, just a year since he became Kyadondo East MP, he claimed police had cancelled or blocked over 125 of his music concerts.
It’s hard to tell how much money Bobi could have lost from these cancelled concerts, nor how much he could have generated from the music shows. It is little wonder that when Justice Esther Nambayo ruled that the police were wrong in blocking Bobi’s Kyarenga Extra concerts in April 2019, she did not award damages because the promoters did not produce enough evidence regarding their losses.
Ms Sarah Nassuuna collapsed after police blocked two of Bobi’s concerts she had organised. She had staked her house to secure a loan to stage the events. We couldn’t find out how much she had lost. But several promoters told us that cancelling a concert as big as Bobi’s may lead to a loss of Shs150m to Shs200m.
Mr Hannington Bujingo, who staged Chameleone’s Legend in Gold concert at Kampala Serena Hotel in 2024, said he paid at least Shs30m for the venue, and another Shs30m on other costs: rehearsals, transport and other preps. He didn’t spend on advertisements because he had a swap deal with a media house in exchange for tables and tickets.
Most promoters we interviewed said the figures vary with venues, because open fields like Cricket Oval require more expenses than indoor venues like hotels. Then there are taxes and police clearance letters.
Bobi says he works with over 200 people for a concert. These include the promoter, the artiste’s backline (instrumentalists, backup vocalists), dancers, bouncers, the ticketing company, and the media. That excludes the vendors, transporters, accommodation facility operators close to the venue, and the venue owners. Nowadays, you can’t ignore the TikTokers, YouTubers, Instagramers, who earn by manipulating content from whatever events.
