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Bobi Wine, Uganda’s most prominent opposition figure, remains in hiding nearly three weeks after a disputed election, as a high-stakes social media feud with the east African country’s military chief escalates.
Wine’s whereabouts have been unknown since 16 January, when he fled what he said was a night raid by the police and military on his home, leaving his family behind.
“I want to confirm that I managed to escape from them,” he said on X the following day. “I know that these criminals are looking for me everywhere, and I am trying my best to keep safe.”
According to official results that have been disputed by Wine, the election was won by President Yoweri Museveni, extending his decades-long rule of Uganda. While in hiding, Wine has been engaged in a war of words with Museveni’s son – and Uganda’s military chief – Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The 43-year-old, a former musician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was the main challenger to Museveni in the election, which was preceded by a widespread crackdown on dissent.
Most Ugandans have not lived under a presidency other than that of the 81-year-old Museveni, and urban youth in particular have connected with Wine. After the election, Wine alleged mass fraud during the voting and called on supporters to protest.
The election was followed by attacks on supporters and officials of the National Unity Platform, the party that Wine leads. Hundreds of his supporters were arrested.
On 24 January, Wine’s wife, Barbara Kyagulanyi, said armed men had forcefully entered their home and assaulted her as they sought to find out her husband’s whereabouts.
Citing the placing of Wine and another opposition politician, Kizza Besigye, under house arrest after past elections, the political analyst Timothy Kalyegira said the “street-smart” Wine “knew the inevitable” and “must have decided he won’t wait for that”.
From his hideouts, Wine has posted text and videos on social media rejecting the election results and taunting the military for failing to find him.
In text accompanying one of his recent videos on X, he wrote: “I advise the regime to stop looking for me – I will resurface at an appropriate time. The best they would do is to peacefully relinquish power and let the people of Uganda decide their own destiny. Short of that, they will face the inevitable fate of all despots before them”.
In a more recent post, on Friday, he directly taunted Kainerugaba. “A rebel without a gun, hiding in plain sight and yet you can’t find me because I’m concealed by the people. Catch me if you can!.” he wrote.
Wine’s statements appear to have irked Kainerugaba, a provocative social media poster. Observers have long-suspected Museveni of grooming him as his successor, though the president has denied it.
In now-deleted posts since the election, Kainerugaba declared that Wine was wanted “dead or alive” and threatened to castrate or even kill him.
“We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week,” Kainerugaba wrote last month. “I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi [Bobi Wine]”.
Kainerugaba denied that soldiers had assaulted Wine’s wife during the raid on her house. “First of all, we do not beat up women. They are not worth our time. We are looking for her cowardly husband not her,” he posted.
A few days, later, he posted a photo showing an armed man standing over Barbara while she sat on the floor of her house. “This is when our soldiers captured and then released Kabobi’s wife Barbie,” he said, referring to the raid.
On Friday, his rants took a diplomatic turn when he accused officials of the US embassy in Kampala of helping Wine go into hiding and declared that the armed forces had suspended cooperation with the embassy. Wine “kidnapped himself and is missing; and according to our best intelligence did all this in co-ordination with the current administration at the US embassy in our country”, he said.
Kainerugaba later apologised, saying he “was being fed with wrong information”.
In response to a request for comment, Col Chris Magezi, acting spokesperson of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, denied the military was pursuing Wine. “Please save the UPDF from the Bobi Wine drama. We are not interested in it because we are busy and have more important matters to attend to,” he said.
Last month, both the prime minister, Robinah Nabbanja, and the information minister, Chris Baryomunsi, said Wine was not wanted by the state.
Noting the case of the reported assault last year of Wine’s bodyguard Edward Ssebufu, another of Kainerugaba’s social media targets, Kalyegira said the military chief’s statements should be taken seriously because he “does translate some of these threats into reality”.
Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer for Wine, said Kainerugaba’s statements “materially elevate the risk of unlawful harm” on Wine and called on the UN, foreign governments and international human rights mechanisms to treat the threats “with the utmost seriousness” and “to demand immediate guarantees” for Wine’s safety.
“Based on my personal knowledge of the torture Mr Wine has previously suffered at the hands of Ugandan security forces, it is not hyperbolic to state that his arrest or detention now carries a real and credible risk of death or grievous bodily harm,” he said in a statement.
