Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Uganda’s predominant opposition chief Bobi Wine was taken to hospital after being shot throughout a confrontation with police on Tuesday on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, his social gathering stated.
The Nationwide Unity Platform stated on X that safety operatives had “made an try on the life” of the politician and added that the ex-pop singer, whose actual identify is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, had “been rushed to hospital for pressing medical consideration”.
Safety forces “surrounded our automobiles and began firing stay bullets, tear gasoline canisters”, the opposition social gathering stated, after Wine had gone to “verify on one among our legal professionals”.
A video posted by the social gathering exhibits the musician-turned-opposition chief in ache after being shot within the leg. The previous member of parliament was helped up and right into a ready automobile by members of his staff as a police pick-up truck left.
Wine ran for president in 2021, shedding to the long-standing Yoweri Museveni in an election he claimed was rigged in opposition to him. The president has held energy since 1986 having used, critics say, each organ of state to his benefit.
Through the 2021 marketing campaign, Wine was shot at, crushed and thrown in jail. Scores of his supporters have been killed and his marketing campaign occasions have been stormed by police. His trademark pink beret was outlawed.
In 2019, police pummelled Wine unconscious with an iron bar and, he claimed, used pliers on his testicles. “I’ve been focused with bullets and tear gasoline canisters, and wounded by the police,” Wine instructed the Monetary Instances afterwards.
“That is yet one more try on the lifetime of our president by the Museveni regime!” the NUP stated.
“Is that this a curtainraiser for 2026 election violence?” requested Sarah Bireete, director of the Heart for Constitutional Governance in Kampala. She was referring to the subsequent presidential election when the 42-year-old Wine might once more face the 79-year-old Museveni.
In July, Wine condemned the federal government’s response to anti-corruption rallies. He expressed solidarity with “brave” protesters who had taken to the streets within the face of “very brutal actions by the army and police”.
After Tuesday’s incident, the Uganda Police Pressure stated that Wine had been invited to a thanksgiving ceremony on the outskirts of Kampala which handed off peacefully however that, afterwards, he and his staff had launched into a procession in opposition to police recommendation, “resulting in police intervention”.
“Cops on web site declare he stumbled whereas entering into his automobile, inflicting the damage,” the assertion continues, “whereas Hon Kyagulanyi and his staff assert that he was shot. An investigation can be carried out to make clear the information.”
