Bobi Wine: The untold story of the inimitable ‘Ghetto President’

Bobi Wine at a past event [Photo: Courtesy]

A few weeks to Uganda’s general election and what could be the biggest day of Bobi Wine’s life, he took his presidential campaign to his family’s ancestral home.

The 38-year-old pop star, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, made his reputation in the informal settlements of Kampala, but in Kanoni, a sleepy rural town in central Uganda, his support was just as evident. Hundreds of young people, mostly men dressed in red, seem to emerge from the bushes and gardens and surround his motorcade. Bobi Wine, also known as the “ghetto president”, climbed through the sunroof of his white Toyota Landcruiser and waved at the crowds - they frantically responded.