Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine drew enormous crowds in Kampala on Monday as he took his presidential campaign to the capital, stepping up his challenge to President Yoweri Museveni’s four decades in power ahead of elections scheduled for January.
Wine — real name Robert Kyagulanyi — is a 43-year-old musician-turned-politician whose message has resonated strongly with Uganda’s youth.
But he faces a formidable political establishment built around the 81-year-old incumbent, who has ruled since 1986.
Tens of thousands of supporters packed the roadsides and surrounded Wine’s convoy as it wound through Kampala’s suburbs, marking his first major tour of the capital since confirming his second bid for the presidency.
He began the day with a visit to Luzira maximum-security prison, where several officials and supporters from his National Unity Platform remain detained.
Addressing cheering crowds dressed in the party’s red and black colours, Wine declared that Uganda was ready for change and that “the dictator must go.”
He said those he met in prison remained defiant and unwavering in their demand for political transformation.
Large numbers of police and army personnel lined the campaign route, despite the authorities having ordered rallies to remain within predetermined areas to prevent road disruptions.
At one location, officers fired tear gas in an attempt to stop supporters from moving on to the next event, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Wine previously ran against Museveni in 2021, an election overshadowed by allegations of fraud and widespread violence by security forces.
He has been arrested repeatedly over the years and has accused both the police and military of torturing him while in custody.
Museveni’s son, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has also made online threats against Wine, including repeated claims he would behead him.
Museveni’s current campaign centres on safeguarding the progress he claims to have achieved and steering Uganda towards high middle-income status.
Yet poverty remains widespread, with around one in six citizens living below the poverty line.
While the president retains support for ending the brutal dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, critics accuse him of replicating the authoritarianism he once opposed.
Uganda’s political climate remains tense. Last year, long-standing opposition figure Kizza Besigye was abducted in Kenya and returned to Uganda, where he now faces a treason charge carrying the possibility of the death penalty.
