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Uganda police raid offices of presidential hopeful Bobi Wine

Wine, a musician-turned-legislator whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was meeting with other leaders of his National Unity Platform party when the police swooped in and cordoned off the area.

Reuters

Ugandan politician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, in Kampala, Uganda, on February 24, 2020.

Armed police have "besieged" the campaign headquarters of Bobi Wine, a pop star and politician who is seeking Uganda's presidency in elections set for 2021.

Police confiscated items such as security cameras and supplies of red berets that are symbols of Wine's popular campaign, David Lewis Rubongoya, an official with Wine's party who was at the scene in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said on Wednesday.

“They have taken away everything,” he said.

Wine and other party officials have not been arrested, he said.

But in a Twitter post Wine reported that “comrades had been injured” after police raided his headquarters and seized documents and other items.

The military and police just raided our head office in Kamwokya. They have broken into offices and taken away valuable documents and other items. Some comrades have been injured. The partisanship of security agencies ahead of the election is stinking.
— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) October 14, 2020

A police spokesman did not immediately respond to questions but authorities frequently accuse Wine and others in the opposition of disobeying orders aimed at protecting public peace.

Wine, who has been arrested many times in recent years, has captured the imagination of many Ugandans with his persistent calls for President Yoweri Museveni to retire.

Museveni, 76, has ruled Uganda since taking power by force in 1986.

Critics accuse him of relying on the armed forces to stay in power. He is able to seek another term after the legislature voted to remove constitutional age limits on the presidency.

Museveni accuses Wine of encouraging young people to riot and has charged that people associated with Wine are "a misguided group being used by some foreigners to destabilise" this East African country that has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power since independence from British colonial rule in 1962.