Bobi Wine, the opposition leader in Uganda, will run for president and chastises the West over rights

Bobi Wine, a pop musician and opposition leader in Uganda, announced on Friday that he intends to run for president a second time and chastised the West for not doing enough to condemn “gross human rights violations” in the nation.

The 80-year-old president Yoweri Museveni, who is most likely to run for reelection, will face off against Wine, 43, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi.

When asked if he will run again in the east African nation’s upcoming January presidential election, Wine responded, “Yeah, I’ve expressed my availability on behalf of my team,” in a Reuters interview.

He added that voting will be “a fighting opportunity to further undress and expose the regime and to further galvanise the people of Uganda to rise up and free themselves.”

Wine claimed ballot staffing, results manipulation, troop beatings and intimidation, and other anomalies, while coming in second in the most recent election in 2021.

Election and government officials refuted the allegations.

Wine chastised Western nations for failing to condemn what he claimed were increasing abuses of human rights, such as the kidnapping, unlawful detention, and torture of his staff and supporters. Wine did not specifically criticize any nation.

“A few Western politicians are implicated in our misery. “They don’t care about human rights; they’re here to break their (business) deals,” he stated.

“If they were standing for the values that they profess, then they would be castigating all these gross human rights violations.”

Uganda has sent troops to Somalia and is viewed by the West as an ally in the war against Islamists.

This Monday, the justice minister of Uganda stated that Eddie Mutwe, a member of Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party and his personal bodyguard, seemed to have been subjected to torture during his imprisonment.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and military chief, said that Museveni had held him in his basement and was treating him as a punching bag.

Mutwe appeared in court on Monday after going gone for a week, was accused of robbery, and was placed under remand.

According to Wine, Mutwe informed him that he had been assaulted, waterboarded, and electrocuted.

A request for comment on the accusations from Reuters was not answered by police spokesperson Rusoke Kituma. Reuters asked Kainerugaba, a spokesman for Uganda’s defense forces, for his thoughts. He didn’t answer.

Wine stated that a war on corruption and the restoration of civil and political rights will be his top goals if elected.