The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine has returned to Kampala following Saturday night’s dash with police in Jinja. Bobi Wine says residents made it impossible for police to arrest him.
“After your raid, the Wanainchi in Jinja made it possible for us to elude you and any evil plans you harbored. The roadblocks you put on the way to sabotage my travel back were a shameful move. I managed to travel back to Kampala today morning,” he said in a post on social media on Sunday.
But the musician – cum – politician started complaing Saturday evening,when police raided the hotel that he had booked with his entourage.He said most of his handlers were last night forced to return back to Kampala at breakneck speed.
He had arrived in Jinja in the afternoon amidst cheers and chats of his now famed people power slogans. His procession caused traffic paralysis for nearly two hours, while he prepared to perform at the anniversary celebration of Queens Palace, a popular bar situated in the centre of Jinja town.
Bobi Wine decried police for brazenly attacking and waylaying his team in the night after retreating to the hotel in Jinja. He says the police must answer questions regarding obstruction of his music shows.
“I still need answers as to why I am singled out and not allowed to practice my profession while my fellow artists are working! If I have a crime, why do you run away from me when I come to your offices? If I have a case to answer, why don’t you summon me and prosecute me as the law requires… he inquired.
The raid was hastily condemned by Bobi Wine’s London based lawyer, Robert Amsterdam and a number of US congress politicians. “This is a clear and brazen act of targeted political repression by the Uganda authorities aimed at violating Bobi Wine’s human rights,” said Amsterdam. “Once again, Bobi Wine has broken no law, the concert was fully and legally permitted, and the other participating musicians were not targeted.”
US Congressman Bradley Sherman who met Bobi Wine early this year when he had gone to Washington for medication said; “the Ugandan government must commit to the essential principle of freedom of speech.”
California Democratic Representative Karen Bass tweeted; “reports are coming out that Bobi Wine may be in danger in Uganda. Stifling freedom of speech and expression and arbitrary arrests have no place in a democracy.”
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what will police do when this man inevitably becomes president? pack and go home? waiting to be hunted and arrested for past criminal acts? Let them stupidly continue to go in front of cameras. How does a man in his prime in 20s and 30s accept to be dragged down by a 70 something who is dying?