Heavy police presence at Entebe Airport ahead of Bobi Wine arrival

Bobi Wine

 

The Kyadondo East Member of Parliament in Uganda, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine  is returning to his country  and indications are that his clash with the State is far from over.

According to a BBC Swahili Instagram post, there is heavy police presence at the airport.

For the past two week, he has been in the US for specialised medical care following his arrest on August 15, 2018.

"If I think about the dangers that face me, it is crazy to go back. But I want to be home. There are 40 million people who need hope so I will go and meet them no matter what," Wine told the Guardian.

Bobi Wine flew to the US following torture by the security agents. Mr Kyagulanyi who is facing treason charges after President Yoweri Museveni's campaign motorcade was stoned in northwestern Arua Municipality, was granted travel permit upon being freed on bail by a Ugandan court. Charges he has since denied.

A few hours after Bobi Wine said that he is 'headed home,' he tweeted:

 "I am a free Ugandan with the right to move freely in my country. The police have no business telling me who receives me and who cannot or where I go and where I cannot. This impunity must stop now."

Wine is on record for having called his supporters to "protest, vote and reach out" but urged them to remain within the bounds of the law.

That being his stance, a showdown between supporters and the Ugandan authorities looms on the return of the 36-year old reggae singer turned politician.

"Popular discontent is growing over President Museveni's apparent desire to remain in power while governance, economic performance and security deteriorate. Uganda is not in danger of renewed civil war or rebel violence, but it risks sliding into a political crisis that could eventually threaten the country's hard-won stability," warned the international crisis Group last year.

The authorities in Uganda, upon receiving reports of the self-declared "ghetto president's" return and the planned rallies by his supporters to welcome him, clamped down any public gathering.

"Members of the public ought to be reminded that public assemblies and processions are regulated by the provisions of the Public Order Management Act (POMA) 2013. No member of his family has worked out a mechanism for these intended processions and assemblies as provided for in the law," Mr Kayima, the Ugandan police spokesman told the press.

In response, Bobi Wine said that the police cannot 'decide who picks him and where to go on arrival.'

He said, "I will be received by friends, colleague leaders and artistes. I will then go and see my sick grandmother briefly at Najjanankumbi from where I will head to Kamwokya for lunch with my family (brothers and sisters) before I go to my home in Magere."

 In a video posted on his Facebook wall, Bobi Wine said he is coming home to continue with the struggle for a 'better Uganda.'

Encouraging the Ugandan citizens, Bobi says, "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." And that "Provided that we are united, with or without me, peaceful change is inevitable in our country. We cannot go for guns, because we know the problems the people who used them have caused."

Though afraid of the reception he might receive from the Ugandan authorities when he return, he affirmed that he is coming because "Uganda is my motherland"