Bobi Wine is given a 48-hour ultimatum to surrender after the Ugandan military chief threatens to kill him
Bobi Wine, the leader of the opposition, has received death threats from Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the head of Uganda’s army, who has demanded that he surrender within 48 hours.
After last week’s contentious presidential election, Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, threatened opposition leader Bobi Wine and demanded that he turn himself in to police within 48 hours, escalating post-election tensions on Monday.
In a series of posts on X, Kainerugaba, the son of longtime President Yoweri Museveni and generally regarded as his preferred successor, expressed his hope for Wine’s demise and threatened to treat the opposition leader as a “outlaw” if he didn’t surrender. He called Wine by the slurs “Kabobi” and said that since the election, dozens of members of Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) had been assassinated.
“We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week,” Kainerugaba wrote in a Facebook, alluding to Wine’s National Unity Platform party. The 23rd is Kabobi, I hope.
The music star-turned-politician Bobi Wine left his house just hours before Museveni was proclaimed the overwhelming victor. After a military assault on his home, Wine, who came in second in the campaign, has accused massive electoral fraud and since made statements from unidentified locations, claiming his life is in danger.
Ugandan law enforcement attempted to disassociate themselves from the military chief’s statements. In defiance of Kainerugaba’s instruction, police spokesperson Kituma Rusoke stated that police were not looking for Wine.
A tumultuous campaign that featured frequent skirmishes between opposition supporters and security personnel preceded the election. Numerous violent post-election occurrences have been documented, including the disputed police killings of opposition supporters. Although expectations of widespread unrest akin to the tragic post-election violence recently witnessed in neighboring Tanzania did not completely materialize, opposition politicians and rights organizations claim the situation is still unstable.
In the past, Kainerugaba has used social media to make divisive remarks. His threats against opposition leaders and neighboring nations in the past have drawn criticism from both internal and foreign quarters. He threatened to invade neighboring Kenya in 2022. President Museveni has refused time and again to train his son as a successor, despite his vocal remarks and seeming political aspirations.
A minimum of 118 members of the National Unity Platform were charged on Monday with election-related offenses, such as conspiracy and unlawful assembly, according to court documents. In response to claims of violence, David Rubongoya, the party’s secretary general, maintained that NUP members were being singled out because of their political beliefs.
