Middle East & Africa | Hands up for the Ghetto President

The arrest of Bobi Wine has shaken Uganda

The state risks turning the popular singer into a populist icon

|KAMPALA
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THE video for his song “Freedom” imagines Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, trapped in a jail cell. Now the singer-turned-politician really is locked up. On August 13th the authorities in Uganda arrested Mr Wine, along with other MPs and activists. Ten days later he was charged with treason. He limped into court, unable to walk unaided; his lawyers say he was beaten by soldiers. Opposition politicians are often arrested on bogus charges. But Mr Wine’s detention has ignited public outrage and exposed the generational chasm in Ugandan politics.

Mr Wine has become the unofficial spokesman for young people disillusioned with Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s ageing president. Calling himself the “Ghetto President”, Mr Wine rose to fame as a dreadlocked pop star who drove fast cars and dissed his rivals. He sang about girls, naturally, but also about mistreated street traders. He calls his songs “edutainment”, music with a message. In 2015 other stars took money to record a campaign anthem for Mr Museveni. Mr Wine wrote his own hit, calling for peaceful elections and a handover of power.

Last year Mr Wine swept into parliament as an independent and, with other MPs, tried to stop a constitutional amendment that would let Mr Museveni extend his rule. “We want to take power back to the people,” he told The Economist at the time, his red tie wrapped like a bandanna around his head. A grenade was later thrown at his house. Undeterred, he campaigned for like-minded candidates in by-elections (they won) and joined protests against a new social-media tax.

This month Mr Museveni and Mr Wine were in the north-western town of Arua for another by-election. An army spokesman says a crowd threw stones at Mr Museveni’s convoy and that Mr Wine’s driver was shot dead in the ensuing “fracas”. The police later claimed to have found guns in the singer’s hotel room. Nearly all of this is disputed. Mr Wine, tweeting before his arrest, said the bullet that hit his driver was meant for him. The charge against Mr Wine of unlawful possession of firearms has already been dropped.

In the days after Mr Wine’s arrest young men lit fires in the streets of Kampala and demanded his release. On August 20th protests erupted across the city. Police and soldiers fired tear gas and bullets. Journalists and bystanders were beaten. One man was shot dead. The authorities forced hundreds of people to kneel on the street with their hands in the air.

In a little over a year Mr Wine has overthrown the conventions of Ugandan politics. For three decades the dominant figures in both the government and the opposition have been veterans of the bush war that brought Mr Museveni to power. Mr Wine was a toddler then. He speaks in a way that appeals to the restless young masses—the median age in Uganda is 16. “He sings about the situation a person faces: unemployment, poor health, poor education,” says one young man.

Mr Wine’s critics say he has no party, no ideas and that, until now, he has not experienced state brutality—a rite of passage for opposition politicians. Mr Museveni condescendingly calls him “our grandson, the indisciplined MP, Bobi Wine”. But the regime is rattled by him. By resorting to violence, the state only accelerates his transformation from weed-smoking celebrity to populist icon. “When leaders become misleaders,” he sings, “then opposition becomes our position.”

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Hands up for the Ghetto President"

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