Bobi Wine, Ugandan presidential candidate, suspended his campaign due to the police brutality and killings his supporters are enduring. This past Tuesday police fired teargas into a crowd of his supporters. Singer, Bobi Wine, is running to be the new president of Uganda in the upcoming election in January 2021. The current leader, President Yoweri Museveni, has been in power since 1986. Citizens believe that Museveni has turned Uganda into an oppressive dictatorship, and that the election is necessary to improve the state of the nation. Since Bobi Wine became a candidate, he has been arrested multiple times, his staff has been wounded, and his supporters have also been arrested or killed.
The Ugandan government has said that candidates and supporters would be arrested if they did not follow COVID-19 guidelines at rallies. Police and protesters have continuously clashed. Police have responded to groups of supporters with teargas and firing their weapons indiscriminately into crowds. The Ugandan government has excused the brutality as enforcement of the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines, but it is mostly about repression. Bobi Wine’s supporters are mostly younger citizens who support his liberalist views, which are the complete opposite of those of the current president’s. Museveni and the rest of his party have also been hosting multiple rallies, but his supporters have not faced the same brutality that Wine’s supporters do. A quote from an article from The Guardian says, “Uganda has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1962.”
Bobi Wine and his party, the National Unity Platform party (NUP), have liberalist and progressive views as their platform. They want to improve the functioning of the democracy, enact social reforms, and advance the quality of life in Uganda. Even though the party has liberalist ideals, it may take a more realist approach to remove Museveni from power. Since he has been president for decades, it’s likely it will take a violent intervention or support from the international community to remove Museveni.