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A Pop Star, a Protest, and a Likely Case of Torture in Uganda
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Aug 26, 2018 01:21pm |
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| Category | General |
| Author | The Atlantic |
| News Date | Sunday, August 26, 2018 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | It has been over 10 days since the Twitter account of the Ugandan member of Parliament commonly known as Bobi Wine went silent. The last time the wildly popular Afropop singer-turned-legislator (whose legal name is Robert Kyagulanyi) tweeted to his followers, it was to post a grim bulletin. “Police has shot my driver dead thinking they've shot at me,” he reported last Monday from the town of Arua, where he had traveled to support an opposition candidate in a local parliamentary by-election. “My hotel is now coddoned [sic] off by police and SFC [Special Forces Command].”
The tweet was accompanied by a grisly photograph of a man slumped forward in the front seat of a car, his head lolling against a blood-smeared backrest. Media would soon identify the man as Yasin Kawuma, a 40-year-old chauffeur and father of 11, beloved in his community as the devoted coach of a youth soccer team. Kawuma had indeed been killed, just as his employer reported, and in the hours that followed it would become increasingly unclear if Bobi Wine himself was dead or alive.
Bobi Wine has been a household name in Uganda for years. Up until recently, though, he was known almost exclusively for his reggae and dancehall-infused hits. The first signs of his political inclinations came only in 2016, when he refused to collaborate with several other giants of Uganda’s music industry on a campaign song for Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s reelection. While numerous pop stars fell dutifully into line, Wine observed that Museveni, who has maintained an iron grip on the presidency since 1986, had nothing left to offer Uganda. |
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