Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Tuesday disclosed that police assaulted his party members and put him under house arrest to prevent him from attending a campaign rally for a local by-election.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, revealed police and military officers, deployed overnight, had barred him from leaving his home in Magere, north of the capital Kampala, to campaign for an opposition candidate in the central district of Kayunga.
‘The military has increased deployment around my home. No one is allowed to leave or enter,’ Wine said on Twitter, accusing President Yoweri Museveni of placing him ‘under house arrest’.
‘Our security guard and gardener have been violently arrested and beaten,’ Wine said, adding that they had been ‘bundled’ into a police vehicle outside his gate and their phones confiscated.
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The popstar-turned-politician came second in a tense January election that returned Museveni to power for a sixth term.
On Tuesday, Wine accused the police of assaulting ‘several’ members of his National Unity Platform party (NUP) at Kayunga — once a ruling party stronghold — where Museveni also held a rally.
One youth leader was taken to hospital after violence erupted, he said.
‘The most critical question to #DictatorMuseveni — if you fear elections, why organise them?’ Wine said on Twitter.
Police commissioner Dennis Namuwoza had earlier warned that processions to Kayunga would be blocked, saying they were against Covid-19 protocols.
‘There will be no blocking of roads and there will be no ferrying goons from other areas to Kayunga… When he (Bobi Wine) goes off the guidelines, we shall manage him,’ local media outlet Daily Monitor quoted him as saying Monday.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK