'Keeping hope alive': pop star politician risks a second shot at leading Uganda

Bobi Wine knows he has little hope of winning Uganda's presidential election on Thursday.

- Fred Harter

His rallies have been broken up using teargas, hundreds of his supporters have been arrested and he campaigns in a bulletproof vest.

But the 43-year-old pop star turned politician still insists on running. “At least I’m fighting back and keeping the hope alive,” Wine told The Observer. “If I didn’t, maybe I would have been killed silently.”

This is the second time Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has challenged Yoweri Museveni for the presidency. The 81-year-old incumbent, who seized power in 1986 at the head of a rebel army and has maintained an iron grip on the country ever since.

Last time, in 2021, Wine won 35% of the vote to Museveni’s 58%, although observers reported widespread irregularities.

Dozens were killed in the lead-up to the election, which ended with soldiers laying siege to Wine’s home after he called the results a “complete sham”. Although he lost, Wine sees that campaign as a success because it shone a light on Museveni’s oppression.

This remains his objective. “We want to continuously expose him,” said Wine. “Every time I speak out, the world gets to know that there’s a voice out there. No matter how suffocated that voice is, it can still be heard.”