Ugandan Police Have Surrounded the Home of Bobi Wine
This comes after authorities cancelled his Independence Day music concert.
The Ugandan police have surrounded musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine's private home in Busabala. According to the The Citizen, armed members of the police set up roadblocks on the road leading to Wine's home late last night. The move is an attempt to prevent him from attending the Independence Day music concert he'd organized for today but that was subsequently cancelled by authorities. Certain vehicles are also being barred from proceeding to his home.
October 9th marks the day that Uganda officially obtained its independence from the British in 1962. To commemorate the day, Wine had planned a music concert at his "One Love Beach" in Busabala,The Independent Ugandan reports. In a letter that Wine received yesterday from Inspector-General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola, it was communicated that there were concerns with regards to the concert's "plans for medical care, traffic control, crowd control and security." In addition, Ochola said that since the majority of police officers would be manning the Independence Day celebrations already taking place in Sironko, there would be inadequate security for Wine's music concert. However, Wine feels this is yet another attempt to undermine him politically.
Yesterday, Wine took to social media and tweeted the following:
Since announcing that he would be running against current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the 2020 elections under the People Power Movement (PPM), Wine has been subjected to incredible scrutiny under Museveni. At the beginning of August, Ziggy Wine—a fellow Ugandan musician and close affiliate of the PPM's leader—passed away after having been abducted and tortured in what was believed to be a politically motivated act. Soon afterwards, Wine was then charged with "intending to annoy the president" in addition to an initial charge of treason. More recently, several of Wine's supporters were arrested after the government put out a ban on the wearing of red berets (the signature regalia of the PPM) by non-military personnel.