Monica Ahimbisibwe
On Tuesday, Robert Kyagulanyi, commonly known as Bobi Wine, leader of Uganda’s National Unity Platform (NUP) and former presidential candidate, claimed to have narrowly survived an assassination attempt.
In a detailed statement, Kyagulanyi has recounted a harrowing incident in which he and his team were allegedly attacked by police officers with explosives and pepper spray.
The attack occurred while he was returning from a visit to his lawyer, George Musisi, in Bulindo, Kira Municipality, after attending a private function.
Kyagulanyi explained that at around 5 p.m., shortly after leaving Musisi’s residence, police officers charged toward his convoy and began launching explosives at close range.
His comrades raised their hands in surrender, pleading with the officers to stop the attack, but the violence continued.
“You must have seen some of the comrades raising their hands up and pleading with the officers to stop the violence, but all in vain,” he said.
The police then allegedly descended on his team, brutalizing them as they struggled to understand the situation.
When the police began advancing toward Kyagulanyi’s car, his driver rolled up the windows, but the sunroof was still open.
An officer then sprayed pepper spray into the vehicle, forcing Kyagulanyi and others to exit. As they fled the car, a teargas canister was fired at Kyagulanyi, exploding between his legs.
He emphasized that he was fortunate to survive, recalling similar incidents in the past where explosives used by police caused severe injuries to others.
“I must be a very lucky man,” Kyagulanyi remarked, referencing a 2021 campaign incident in which a police explosive shattered the leg of a supporter, Zubeda, leading to her leg being amputated.
Kyagulanyi also highlighted other victims of similar violence, including Makerere University student Richard Sebuganda, who lost his arm to a police explosive during a protest, and journalists such as Ashraf Kasirye and Ali Mivule, both of whom were severely injured by police actions.
He criticized the police for attempting to downplay the Tuesday attack, noting that their initial statement claimed he had stumbled and injured himself.
“It is a shame that the police’s new spokesperson… has taken over from where Fred Enanga stopped,” Kyagulanyi said, accusing the authorities of lying to cover up the truth.
He noted that only after videos of the attack emerged on social media did the police begin to adjust their narrative.
The opposition leader praised ordinary citizens for capturing videos of the incident, emphasizing that citizen recordings have become a powerful tool against state oppression.
“If these videos hadn’t come out, you can be sure the regime would have maintained the single narrative that I stumbled and injured myself,” Kyagulanyi said.
He urged Ugandans to continue recording human rights violations, stating that the government has consistently failed to provide footage from its own cameras in incidents involving opposition figures, such as the deaths of Ritah Nabukenya, Frank Ssenteza, Ziggy Wyne, and Dan Kyeyune.
Kyagulanyi stressed that the Tuesday attack was not an isolated incident but part of a broader campaign of violence and repression targeting his political movement.
He recalled that just a month earlier, his party’s head of security, Achileo Kivumbi, was abducted, tortured, and charged in a military court. He also pointed out that many of his comrades are still being held as political prisoners, including activists like Olivia Lutaaya, Machete Yasin, and Kalanzi Sharif.
The NUP leader has survived multiple assassination attempts in recent years. He recounted a 2018 incident in Arua where his driver, Yasin Kawuma, was shot dead, allegedly by Museveni’s Special Forces Command (SFC), who had mistaken him for Kyagulanyi.
In another attempt in December 2020, police explosives nearly killed him during his presidential campaign in Kayunga, severely injuring his music producer, Dan Magic, who lost his teeth and has since undergone multiple surgeries.
Later that day, Kyagulanyi’s vehicle was shot at in Jinja, with bullets piercing the windscreen and tires. “To date, I don’t know how we survived that shooting,” he reflected, crediting his survival to divine intervention.
Kyagulanyi accused the Museveni regime of systematically targeting him and his associates, describing the attack as a deliberate attempt to provoke his team into violence so the authorities could justify their actions.
“The Museveni regime is determined to kill us. Only that they have still failed to create the perfect circumstances to assassinate us and then blame it on us,” he said, citing numerous instances where his team had been falsely accused of violence, including the killing of his driver in Arua.
Despite these provocations, he commended his supporters for maintaining discipline and resisting violent retaliation, which he believes has thwarted the government’s plans.
The NUP leader also alleged that many of the officers involved in Tuesday’s attack were military personnel disguised as police, and some were even hardened criminals rewarded by the regime for committing atrocities.
He singled out individuals like Twesigye Kaino Elias, who allegedly threw the canister that injured him, and Shadrack, a former member of the notorious ‘Wembley’ group linked to extrajudicial killings.
Kyagulanyi condemned the regime’s practice of promoting officers implicated in violence against opposition figures, citing the recent promotion of Frank Mwesigwa to Assistant Inspector General of Police.
Mwesigwa was involved in the deadly November 2020 crackdown that left over 150 people dead. “These promotions are a message to other officers who still respect the law to act like the Mwesigwas of this world,” Kyagulanyi said, accusing President Museveni of personally sanctioning such brutality.
In his statement, Kyagulanyi thanked supporters both in Uganda and abroad for their solidarity and urged the international community to take action against the Museveni regime.
He called on Uganda’s development partners to review their support for the government, which he said is used to oppress citizens. “Please act and act fast because we’re dying!” he pleaded.
He concluded by urging Ugandans to stay resolute in their fight for a better country. “Whatever happens to any one of us involved in the struggle, the survivors must keep up the fight until the war against dictatorship is won!” Kyagulanyi declared.
