As the people of Uganda await a set election date, pop star-turned-politician, Bobi Wine, who has garnered support to become one of the country’s leading contenders, has claimed that he was arrested, beaten, and tortured by the police hours after he registered his candidacy to challenge President Yoweri Museveni.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was pulled down from his car by heavily armed police and army officers as he was leaving the Kyambogo University cricket grounds, and thrown into a van after submitting his nomination papers under the National Unity Platform (NUP) to election officials in the capital Kampala, televised footage showed.
Speaking to supporters following the traumatic incident, Wine said the police directed pepper spray into his face, temporarily blinding him. “They sprayed pepper spray in our eyes. I still can’t see properly. Very many people are in hospital in critical condition. This election is no election as usual – this is a revolutionary election. If it’s a boxing fight, it has begun,” he said.
So far, authorities have accused Wine of planning an illegal procession that was broken up to preserve the flow of traffic and public order.
“He was forcefully removed from his vehicle, and a fracas ensued in the process of transferring him to the police vehicle. He was eventually safely delivered to his home in Magere [a neighborhood of Kampala],” the spokesperson said.
More Than One Victim
Another opposition presidential candidate in Uganda, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, arrived shoeless and disheveled to file his candidacy after being intercepted en route to his party headquarters and bundled into a police van.
“It is disgusting, disappointing, but this was expected by a regime that is shameless, desperate to cling to power,” Amuriat told Al Jazeera after being marched by Police across the university campus in his socks, his suit askew.
Museveni, who had the constitution amended twice to allow him to run a sixth time in 2021, filed his candidacy on Monday as the flag bearer for the ruling National Resistance Movement party of Uganda.
