Bobi Wine’s 2021 presidential bid heart-warming, but will he hack it?

Thanks to the ruthless security system in Uganda that made him grow in stature to become the politician he is, Bobi Wine has declared his intention to remove Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni from power come the 2021 elections.

For many who thought this was only a gadfly that Museveni was to easily swat away when he started irritating him with demands for democratic reforms, the Kyadondo East MP, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has his eyes on the State House.

Autocratic rulers in Africa have the fame of making mountains out of mole hills.

When Bobi Wine, then a nondescript musician performing in nightclubs in the capital Kampala, started criticising Museveni’s strong-arm tactics on stage, few listened to him.

It is only when the security forces started arresting him that he started hitting headlines.

The youth in Kampala, and later the rest of the country, who have never known any other president apart from Museveni, identified with him. He rode to Parliament on an opposition ticket in 2017.

Like Dr Kizza Besigye, Bobi Wine has been a ‘state guest’ (detainee) many times. But unlike Besigye, he has become bolder and more popular.

He was most recently arrested in April for allegedly staging an illegal protest but was released after a few days.

Bobi Wine has become inured to mistreatment by a scared Museveni security machinery.

What, however, should worry him most and his followers is what will follow his stand on the presidency.

Vintage Museveni has never had a real threat on his reign and Bobi Wine seems to be presenting one.

His supporters and those outside the country who would want to see changes in Uganda should pray that the treason charges the MP is facing after he and 30 other opposition politicians won’t be used to stop him.

They were arrested in August last year for allegedly stoning Museveni’s convoy following a rally campaign.

It’s official: Ugandan MP Bobi Wine is to run for presidency in 2021, challenging President Yoweri Museveni in the polls.

Music is increasingly becoming the ladder to the political arena.

In Kenya, Charles Njagua Kanyi, alias Jaguar, became Starehe MP in 2017 after a successful music career.

“Professor J” in Tanzania also joined politics and he is juggling his music and political career just fine. Recently, Uganda’s Jose Chameleone also came out saying he would run for presidency.

In an interview, Kidum, a Kenyan-based musician from Burundi, disclosed that he would return home and join politics.

Nigerian afro pop singer, songwriter and celebrated music producer David Adedeji Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, ran for senator.

His compatriot Olubankole Wellington, aka Banky W, singer, rapper and actor, wants to be in the House of Representatives.