Shooting of Bobi Wine — Stand Up Against Museveni’s Bloody Rule, Stand Up for Human Rights

A statement by Platform for African Democrats in response to the shooting of Bobi Wine by Ugandan police on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

Wine was at an event in Kira outside Kampala when the crowd was targeted by Uganda’s security forces. Multiple tear gas canisters were fired, including several into Wine’s car, one exploding against his leg. He was helped into a car and taken to Nsambya Hospital, where his personal doctor works. The security forces were filmed leaving the scene in a vehicle.

Wine’s supporters released a statement which read:

“This evening, as our President Bobi Wine returned from Bulindo in Kira Municipality where he had gone to check on one of our lawyers, Musisi George, the police and military under the command of one Twesigye surrounded our vehicles and started firing live bullets, teargas canisters and other projectiles. In the process, our President Bobi Wine, who was clearly targeted, was shot in the leg.”

This is but the latest outrage by what is fast becoming Africa’s worst dictatorship where more than 50 people were shot dead by security forces in the lead-up to the 2021 election. That election is widely held to have been rigged in favour of President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for 38 years since taking power in 1986.

When the bogus election results were announced, Wine’s house was surrounded by security forces. This is how a dictatorship treats someone who, even according to their dodgy count, obtained the second-highest number of votes.

The West has looked away from Uganda’s slide into bloody autocracy, citing the need for it to tend to its security interests in the volatile region. This has enabled growing state violence, culminating in this brazen shooting of the leader of the opposition. Donors seldom found a government they did not like. The urge to distribute funds – often for their own domestic reasons – is often greater than any concerns about the regime to which they are being given.

Museveni is treated as a legitimate statesman and feted by governments, funded by lenders and accommodated as if he is a legitimate head of state, running a functional democracy.

These governments and businesses that support Uganda should stand up and be counted now that the truth about this brutal regime has been exposed by this shooting. Without a clear message, there’s a risk that state-sponsored violence can only increase in the run-up to the next election.

Now is the time to speak out. Failing to do so will cost lives and allow Museveni to continue his bloody rule with impunity, a licence for state-sponsored terror that can only proliferate without a clear and unambiguous message. Human rights must be indivisible, and there should be no attempt to overlook or obscure abuses, whether under colonialism, apartheid or authoritarianism.

Wine’s wife, Barbie Kyagulanyi, says the methods of Museveni – in a country where the median age is 15.7 years – are to “intimidate and spread fear, to stop and scare everyone else. We have seen him kill our colleagues in the same manner, and they want to deal with Bobi once and for all. His driver was killed during the election campaign, his cameraman was shot in the head, and Bobi was attacked. Their belief is that if you target the shepherd, the sheep will scatter. But, Bobi will remain true to his values and his beliefs, and won’t be intimidated.

“I trust that the international community will finally see Museveni for what he is – a murderer.”

This statement is further endorsed by:

Adalberto Costa Junior, Abel Chivukuvuku, Atupele Muluzi, Carbone Beni, David Coltart, Dorothy Semu, Edwin Sifuna, Gladys Hlatshwayo, Gloria Uwishema, Greg Mills, Henry Sands, Jeffrey Smith, John Steenhuisen, Kizza Besigye, Leopoldo López, Moeketsi Majoro, Nic Cheeseman, Omer Ismail, Paula Cristina Roque, Ray Hartley, Robin Auld, Tanele Maseko, Tendai Biti, Tut Jikany, Viktor Yushchenko, William Leslie Amanzuru, Ivone Soares, Zitto Kabwe, Carine Kanimba, Manuel Massungue.