Ugandan pop star Bobi Wine cleared to challenge aging incumbent again

Ugandan opposition leader and pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was cleared on Wednesday to run for president, setting up a second showdown with longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni. Wine, born Robert Kyagulanyi, finished runner-up in 2021 but rejected the results, alleging ballot-stuffing, intimidation by security forces, falsified tallies and voter bribery.

Museveni, 81, who has governed since 1986, received clearance on Tuesday to seek another term that could extend his rule to nearly half a century.

“Our country is one of the richest on the planet in natural resources … our problem is lack of leadership—leadership that serves the people instead of terrorising and exploiting them,” Wine said after Uganda’s electoral chief confirmed his candidacy in Kampala.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) has long accused authorities of abducting, illegally detaining and torturing its supporters. Government officials deny systematic abuses and say arrests are made only on credible suspicions of crimes. In January, Muhoozi Kainerugaba—Museveni’s son and the military’s top commander—threatened to behead Wine, and in May he said he had confined a missing NUP official in his basement while issuing further threats. Dozens of NUP members remain behind bars on what the party calls politically motivated charges.

Branding himself the “Ghetto President,” Wine argues he speaks for Uganda’s youth, the unemployed and working poor. “We are fighting for a better Uganda—for farmers, for graduates without jobs, for the ghetto youth whose future is being stolen,” he said.

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