Bobi Wine Is Willing ‘To Die Trying’ To Win Freedom For Uganda

Bobi Wine. Photo-www.bobiwine.com

“I’m supposed to be a dead man,” says Bobi Wine, a Ugandan musician turned politician.

His driver Yasin Kawuma was shot dead on Aug. 13. Wine tweeted a graphic picture he said was of the man’s dead body. Wine says police were the ones who shot Kawuma, but Wine says he was their real target.

Bobi Wine’s real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu. He rose to fame as a musician — first with love songs and dance songs, but more recently turned to political themes in his music. His 2017 song “Freedom” has become a rallying cry for the country’s opposition.

In the same year, Wine was elected to the country’s Parliament as an independent.

He’s become a leader in opposing the country’s longtime President Yoweri Museveni — in power since 1986. Museveni is known for violently crushing dissent. Human Rights Watch says the government “continues to violate free association, expression, and assembly rights.”

“We are living in a country where life does not mean a thing,” Wine tells NPR’s Scott Simon.

Wine came into NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C. this week. He was walking with a crutch. “I’m feeling pain in my back, in my shoulders, in various parts of my body. But my spirit is high and I don’t think about pain anymore,” he says.

He was arrested in mid-August after clashes between opposition supporters and supporters of Uganda’s ruling party. Security forces accused Wine of fomenting the violence and arrested him. Wine was later released and promptly rearrested and charged with treason, along with 33 others, according to Amnesty International.

For more please see NPR

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/08/645604712/bobi-wine-is-willing-to-die-trying-to-win-freedom-for-uganda