The president of the National Unity Platform, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions on President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the head of the military.
Addressing the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18 from an undisclosed location, Bobi Wine accused the two generals of presiding over escalating human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
“Right now, I am speaking to you while in hiding. This is because as soon as the election was finished, Museveni’s son, who is also chief of the Ugandan military, issued an order to take me ‘dead or alive’,” Bobi Wine told the summit via video link.
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“The military acted on his order and raided my home. They tortured my family members and humiliated my wife, accusing her of hiding me. They recorded and took pictures of her, which the military chief later shared on social media, bragging about her capture.”
The singer-turned-opposition leader first addressed the annual summit in 2022 after the January 2021 presidential election, which he described as “the most violent political campaign” in his Tuesday speech.
Bobi Wine said Mr Museveni and Gen Kainerugaba had been “emboldened by a lack of international action” and were no longer deterred by the threat of sanctions or diplomatic pressure.
“This is our call to action. If the international community continues to be complacent, Uganda will go from bad to worse. Museveni and his son’s military will massacre many more innocent Ugandans,” he said.
“The second option is that the international community rises to the occasion. Stand by the values you profess: democracy and human rights. You can rein in General Museveni and his son through targeted sanctions, as well as financial and legal pressures.”
Bobi Wine’s whereabouts remain unknown since he fled his home a little more than a month ago. Although the Electoral Commission declared Mr Museveni the winner with 71.65% against Bobi Wine’s 24.72%, security forces have continued to lay siege to his home.
“Sanction General Museveni. Sanction General Muhoozi. Sanction the police, military officers, and judicial officers responsible for gross human rights violations and electoral fraud,” he told the summit.
“Their combined efforts in the last election gave autocracy a blank check to rule over the people of Uganda for another five years.”
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OUR READERS OFTEN ASK
Bobi Wine’s call for sanctions comes weeks after the United States rebuked Gen Kainerugaba over a social media post alleging that the US embassy in Kampala had helped Bobi Wine to flee his home and that Uganda was suspending all cooperation with Washington, “including our work in Somalia”.
The chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, said Gen Kainerugaba had “crossed a red line” and urged a re-evaluation of Washington’s security partnership with Uganda, raising the prospect of sanctions.
“The president’s son, and his likely successor, cannot just delete tweets and issue hollow apologies,” he wrote on X.
The Geneva summit brings together activists and former political prisoners from around the world. Bobi Wine and Zimbabwean journalist Blessed Mhlanga were the African speakers.
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