The pop star vs the president: Uganda's generational fight

Ugandan military police, one wearing a balaclava with a skull painted on, patrol where supporters of pop star-turned-lawmaker Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine gather, in the Kisekka Market area of Kampala, Uganda Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. Bobi Wine, who opposes the longtime president Yoweri Museveni, was charged with treason in a civilian court in Gulu on Thursday, minutes after a military court dropped weapons charges. [AP Photo/Ronald Kabuubi]

“We used to be scared,” said Josephine Katumba, a 30-year-old hairdresser in Kamwokya, a poor suburb of Uganda’s capital Kampala. “We don’t have fear anymore.”

President Yoweri Museveni has long had police beat the defiance out of his opponents, but a 36-year-old slumboy singer-turned-MP has energised and emboldened Uganda’s youths, worrying the Government.

Black scorch marks on the potholed road outside Ms Katumba’s tiny salon mark where residents have routinely burnt tyres to protest the arrest of Bobi Wine, a local boy done good, charismatic pop star and unlikely opposition firebrand.

There is “Free Bobi Wine” graffiti everywhere. “People have wanted change for a long time,” said Katumba, nimbly braiding a customer’s hair. “The difference now is that Bobi is young and he speaks for youths.”

As a pop star, Bobi Wine blended lyrics on social justice and poverty with catchy Afrobeat rhythms, earning him committed fans among Uganda’s often poor urban youth. 

He took on the nickname of “His Excellency the Ghetto President”.

Under his real name Robert Kyagulanyi, he won a by-election in 2017 and entered parliament, where his popularity and outspoken opposition to Uganda’s long-time leader shook up the country’s “Groundhog Day” politics.

In power since 1986, the 74-year-old Museveni is the only president most Ugandans have known: the country’s median age is less than 16.

Age limits

Museveni has had the Constitution amended twice, to remove term and then age limits, clearing him to run for a sixth term in 2021.

The opposition has for two decades been similarly dominated by 62-year-old Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s former friend and personal physician, who has lost four successive elections.

Mr Besigye “has become part of an entrenched political system in which change feels impossible without fresh leadership,” said Kampala-based independent analyst Anna Reuss.

Mr Kyagulanyi has swiped the opposition mantle from Besigye and provided a voice for a youthful population fed up with old men telling them what to do.

“Besigye is there to help, but he’s not from the ghetto. Bobi can come and talk to us on the streets,” said Katumba.

The combination of “his age, his background and his story” make Kyagulanyi a challenge unlike any Museveni has faced during his 32-year rule, said Ugandan writer and political analyst Rosebell Kagumire.

She described him as “an outsider who is trying to shake things up”.

But in Uganda, shaking things up is risky.

Kyagulanyi rode into Parliament on a wave of urban, youthful support. He quickly spearheaded resistance to the ruling party initiative removing age limits that cleared the way for Museveni to rule for life, and led protests earlier this year against a new social media tax.

The image of Kyagulanyi, in his signature red beret, leading a crowd of supporters through the streets became ubiquitous.

And as candidates he backed won a string of by-elections, Kyagulanyi was even harder to ignore.

He and Museveni went head-to-head last month. Both men travelled to the north-western town of Arua to canvass for rival candidates on the eve of a by-election and a proxy confrontation ensued.

An opposition crowd allegedly stoned Museveni’s motorcade, breaking a car window. Police responded with bullets and Kyagulanyi’s driver was shot dead. The MP himself was arrested - he claims he was tortured and badly beaten while in custody - and charged with treason, as were dozens of others.

Kyagulanyi’s candidate, Kassiano Wadri, won the election.

The torture allegations resonated, riling up Kyagulanyi’s supporters.

“We were angry and wanted to see that Bobi was fine,” Katumba said, recalling the eruption of street protests that followed.

Granted bail, Kyagulanyi has travelled to the US to seek medical treatment and has ramped up his criticism of Museveni’s regime from afar. Kyagulanyi’s expected return to Uganda will test Museveni further.

For his part, the president seems unable to adapt to the shifting challenge.

The arbitrary arrest and beating of opposition leaders is an old tactic that was deployed against Besigye for years.