
“Supporters enthusiastically chant for NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, upon his arrival in Katwe, Kampala, after escaping house arrest in Magere. He had been confined since yesterday for planning a protest against poor roads in the country” (The Kampala Voice, 18.01.2024).
Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine have been put in house-arrest since yesterday. There were reports in the morning that there were military and police officers besieging the gates in Magere, Wakiso district. However, Bobi Wine has been able escape and go out of his compound.
The authorities already have sent journalists away and harassed anyone who tried to access Bobi Wine in the early morning of the 19th of January 2024. While he was house arrested early on the 18th of January 2024.
So, the opposition leader has been able to navigate the blocked roads and gotten into the city. As Bobi Wine got to Rubaga and Katwe in Kampala city. While the security officers are surrounding his compound. The opposition leader is participating in the protest the bad roads like he called for on the 17th of January 2024.
Bobi Wine has been able to do this before and does it again. He makes a lot of noise doing this and it gives him an edge. While people question the guards and the ones at the gates. If they are in alliance or have some connections allowing him to leave. As the officers can be brutal and unforgiving to the citizens. That’s why journalists and others met with hostility and harassed earlier in the day.
We can be happy for Bobi Wine, and he got the spirit of defiance. Where he stands on the streets of the city and leads from the front. Even if it is just planting a matooki stud in a pothole. That’s what is needed to prove the wrongs of the system itself.
This must be annoying for the President and his speech. As that will be all overshadowed by the house-arrests, and the protest itself. It isn’t the smiles and perfect picture that the authorities wanted during the conference. The opposition is just showing what is wrong with the state and how it is operating.
Bobi Wine is just putting the government on alert and setting the agenda. Even if the National Resistance Movement (NRM) doesn’t want to say so. Him on a boda-boda across the city is a message that the President for Life doesn’t want to see, but it will be the picture that will reflect the short-comings of his government. Peace.










