Bobi Wine speaking after being roughed up by dictator Museveni’s goons.
(This morning Ugandan Member of Parliament and Presidential candidate on the National Unity Platform party ticket in the country’s 2021 vote Robert Kyagulanyi, a.k.a. Bobi Wine, was violently arrested immediately after he turned in his nomination papers. Many of his supporters were injured with some requiring hospitalization. He described the incident later from outside his residence in front of supporters. Bobi Wine is running against Uganda’s dictator of 34 years the kleptocratic Gen. Yoweri Museveni.)
Fellow Ugandans here in Uganda and all over the world. This is it. This is the day that the lord has made for us. Take my apologies if I cannot open my eyes wide. But you all know what happened to us. We left this place in the morning very smart—but now you see what we look like. [He pointed out to some of his colleagues who showed their wounds from the assault by the police and military during their arrest and brief abduction—Eddy Mutwe, Adam, and Joel Senyonjo].
Very many others are in hospital now in very critical conditions. This happened right from the time, immediately after the nomination. We were abducted by the police, the military. Can everybody see my hand? Immediately they bundled me into the van which had goons. They sprayed pepper spray in our eyes. I could not open my eyes…I can’t do that very well. They twisted my hand.
I don’t know what they put on my hand but it felt like a very burning object and if you can see my hand clearly, it’s fairly burnt. All this was happening on the nomination grounds immediately after nomination under the watch of the Electoral Commission. Mr. Byabakama [Judge Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, Chairman of the Electoral Commission] says he has given me security to escort me home. But the same security officers, the so-called security officer who was designated to guard me was part of the people that smashed my window under the leadership of one Aguma.
Well yesterday Mr. Byabakama nominated three candidates. Each one of them came and went back with their supporters—none of them was brutalized, none of them was arrested, none of them was abducted. As soon as we were done with nomination, that happened under the watch of the Electoral Commission, on the nomination ground.
Now I want Mr. Byabakama to tell us that the Electoral Commission is not one-sided, that the police is not one-sided. I want him to confirm to Ugandans here and abroad that he is going to organize a free and fair election. With that said, my brothers and sisters, I want to assure you that this election is not an election as usual. This is a revolutionary election.
All the firings of the guns that you hear, those are signs of fear. I want to remind you that today, if it’s a boxing fight, it has begun. It’s not going to be easy. We are going to face so much harassment, teargas, even murders. But I can guarantee to you, like it happened with Saddam, like it happened with Quthadaffi, like it happened with Mugabe, like it happened with Bashir, it will happen here.
All you have to do is make sure we abide by the law. They tried to stop this nomination in Arua by taking my life, they failed. Respect to you. They tried to stop us using trumped up charges…They tried to use my academic documents, everything failed. Now we are here and at the end of this, we shall be in Entebbe (Uganda’s State House).
