Bobi Wine says Museveni's gov't is scared ahead of his Thursday return

Uganda’s vocal legislator Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine announced on Tuesday that he will return to the country on Thursday, urging his supporters to prepare to ‘continue the struggle for a better Uganda’.

Bobi Wine has been in the United States where he sought specialised treatment from injuries sustained during military detention, following his arrest in the West Nile town of Arua last month.

In a video posted on his Facebook page, Bobi Wine sought to answer critics of his ‘People Power’ movement that has been growing as an alternative opposition voice to president Yoweri Museveni’s government.

‘‘“People Power is not about Bobi Wine but all the people struggling to have a better country,’‘ Bobi Wine said.

‘‘I’m only just one of the more 40 Million Ugandans that continue to suffer. We’re not a group of violent people. We despise violence and are not associated with violent whatsoever.’‘

The government has accused opposition supporters of being violent, including attcking the president’s convoy in Arua, an action that sparked off the chaos that resulted in arrests and torture of legislators like Bobi Wine.

‘Bobi Wine is welcome’

The government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo, welcomed Bobi Wine’s decision to return home, saying ‘his citizenship and rights here are not contested’.

He also added that the legislator might be escorted to his destination upon his arrival in Uganda.

“We shall provide, as a government, the usual security and protection guarantees that we provide for all travelers and leaders of his level and if need be to be escorted to his destination,’‘ Opondo explained.

Bobi Wine, who met several Ugandan groups in the United States and also lobbied members of the congress to take action against the Ugandan government over its human rights violations, also published an op-ed in the Washington Post.

In it, he continued to rally his youthful base to demand change, freedom which he says ‘is within reach for the first time’.

‘‘The people we are scared of are actually very scared of us. They don’t know how to deal with a united group of young people.’‘