Although President Yoweri Museveni won the presidential election with 59% of the vote on a 57% turnout according to the electoral commission over a dozen of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government cabinet members lost their seats while Bobi Wine's (Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu) National Unity Platform took over 90% of the seats in Buganda and became the largest opposition party...

Although President Yoweri Museveni won the presidential election with 59% of the vote on a 57% turnout according to the electoral commission over a dozen of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government cabinet members lost their seats while Bobi Wine's (Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu) National Unity Platform took over 90% of the seats in Buganda and became the largest opposition party...

Bobi Wine officially won 35% of the presidential vote and the NUP took 56 seats...

The FDC was jealous of Bobi Wine's popularity and could not bring itself to make common cause with him against Museveni and it now finds itself marginalised (AC Vol 60 No 23 Unity or bust for 2021)...

Bobi Wine took the anti-Museveni vote from the FDC and believes as Besigye did before him that the incumbent stole an election he rightfully won by rigging the results...

Even the pundits who point out that Bobi Wine's urban popularity is balanced by the NRM's loyal following in the countryside such as older voters who value stability and may still be grateful for the ending of the chaos of civil war 34 years ago acknowledge that Museveni unleashed a wave of murderous brutality as part of a suite of measures to minimise the opposition vote...

Even before the Electoral Commission declared Museveni the winner Bobi Wine had rejected the results claiming the election was rigged right from the start of the campaign...

Bobi Wine sent his children to the United States because he was so afraid of the possibility of them being injured in attacks on his person...

Throughout the campaign the opposition remarked on the ruling party's capture of the Electoral Commission whose chairman Justice Simon Byabakama (who was appointed by Museveni) did nothing as Bobi Wine and his supporters were beaten and their rallies disrupted...

While ruling party candidates were from time to time allowed to carry out massive rallies and processions Bobi Wine and FDC's Amuriat often found themselves in running battles or brutalised by security forces that included police and the military...

Bobi Wine was arrested many times...

The reason for the massive display of state force was the President's realisation that Bobi Wine's support was much stronger than previous candidates...

Muhoozi has for years been seen as a potential successor for his father and he has left no doubt about his dislike for Bobi Wine who he has attacked on social media countless times (AC Vol 58 No 3 Kith kin and cosh)...

While observers from the East African Community and African Union missions said the elections were largely free and fair many especially in central Uganda where Bobi Wine trounced Museveni have expressed the exact opposite...

The riots of 18-19 November which broke out after the arrest of pop-star-turned-opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine were Uganda's deadliest in many years with about 54 people shot dead by security forces (AC Vol 61 No 20 Bottling Wine)...

The riots of 18-19 November which broke out after the arrest of pop-star-turned-opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine were Uganda's deadliest in many years with about 54 people shot dead by security forces (AC Vol 61 No 20 Bottling Wine)...

Museveni and his handlers appear to believe these tactics effective against the supporters of Kizza Besigye the perennial opposition challenger for the presidency since 2001 will succeed against the supporters of Bobi Wine...

But Bobi Wine – unlike Besigye or Museveni – belongs to the country's biggest religious denomination the Catholic Church and its biggest ethnic group the Baganda...

But Bobi Wine's support is thought to be more strongly founded than this which helps explain the violence of the state against the protests...

Bobi Wine was arrested in the Luuka District of eastern Uganda for breaching Electoral Commission guidelines stipulating that no more than 200 people can attend rallies during the Covid-19 pandemic...

In August 2018 the army denounced 'unprofessional conduct' and pledged to hold the culprits accountable for the violence that followed Bobi Wine's arrest in northern Uganda and the killing of his driver (AC Vol 59 No 18 Wave of protests rattles Museveni)...

Bobi Wine has vowed to keep going...

While the investigations were ongoing ISO clashed with the military leadership in another case in which some individuals had sued Bobi Wine and other members of his National Unity Platform alleging that he had acquired the party fraudulently...

Bobi Wine needed the NUP as a vehicle in order to meet constitutional conditions for standing for the presidency...

Many in Kampala think that the National Unity Reconciliation and Development Party the precursor to the NUP had been encouraged by the securocrats to sue Bobi Wine so that he would be shown to have acquired the party wrongly and would thus be 'legally' ineligible to stand (AC Vol 61 No 20 Bottling Wine)...

ISO officers are believed to have coerced Kibalama to claim in an affidavit that the NUP had been forced out of his hands by Bobi Wine...

The upshot was that Bobi Wine was cleared to continue with the NUP...

Museveni was particularly irritated that many thought his government was so afraid of Bobi Wine it would keep him out of the polls illegitimately...

Election challengers face presidential wrath When security forces raided the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine in Kampala on 14 October it was just another attempt by the Ugandan government to push him out of contention...

Bobi Wine's organisation say the officers on the raid seemed to be looking for compromising documents or information about members and supporters...

Most voters there are under 30; many of the restive unemployed back Museveni's main challenger Bobi Wine the 38-year-old pop star-turned-politician (AC Vol 61 No 19 Watering down the wine)...

To counter Bobi Wine's campaign Museveni has been pouring money into youth groups and offering gifts including $8 million worth of bicycles for village leaders across the country...

If all else fails the government may find a way of disqualifying Bobi Wine from standing...

Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces General David Muhoozi is in the spotlight over suspicious dealings with the man who is seeking to deregister a political party he handed over to opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine...

Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces General David Muhoozi is in the spotlight over suspicious dealings with the man who is seeking to deregister a political party he handed over to opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine...

Moses Kibalama a little-known former police officer who guarded two former presidents came to public attention in July when he handed over to Bobi Wine the National Unity Platform (NUP) previously known as the National Unity Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP)...

Despite its popularity Bobi Wine's People Power movement was unregistered and risked being locked out of the electoral process...

To overcome this Bobi Wine unveiled the NUP on 22 July prompting praise that he had outsmarted Museveni's establishment that sought to block his candidacy...

The party had also selected Bobi Wine as its presidential candidate...

But in August Difas Basile and Hassan Twala who claim to be NURP founder members dragged Bobi Wine other NUP leaders and the Electoral Commission to court claiming they had illegally changed the party leadership and its name...

With Kibalama nowhere to be seen Bobi Wine and the NUP leadership accused the military of holding him against his will...

The hopes that the political sensation Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine could rally a national alliance against President Yoweri Museveni have been thwarted by political differences...

The hopes that the political sensation Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine could rally a national alliance against President Yoweri Museveni have been thwarted by political differences...

It is from the younger generation that Bobi Wine draws his strongest support...

Besigye and Bobi Wine have a formal alliance but it has little practical effect as their supporters still see themselves as rivals...

The veteran oppositionist although friendly with Bobi Wine is keeping his options open and favours a mass street protest campaign against Museveni...

Other leaders who have long campaigned against Museveni can't bring themselves to throw their lot in with Bobi Wine...

However Bobi Wine believes he can reproduce on a national scale his stunning by-election victory in Kyadondo East in 2017 which he took with 78% of the vote...

Besigye and Bobi Wine recently held a press conference renewing their alliance but they are on different courses and so risk splitting the anti-Museveni vote...

Their strategic differences became clear when Bobi Wine burst onto the national political scene...

While Bobi Wine mobilised Ugandans to register for National Identity Cards so that they could vote Besigye said planning to overthrow Museveni through elections was futile (AC Vol 60 No 23 Unity or bust for 2021)...

What started as a mild disagreement soon escalated into a full-blown rivalry with Bobi Wine and Besigye supporters attacking each other...

Bobi Wine expressed disappointment in Besigye who stood on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) ticket in four elections – 2001 2006 2011 and 2016 – and lost all rounds and only now has pronounced them a waste of time...

A poll by Research World International (RWI) recently indicated that if elections were held in March 46% of voters would pick President Museveni Bobi Wine would come second with 22% and Besigye third with 17%...

Most of those polled also said Bobi Wine had a better chance of beating Museveni than Besigye...

Besigye took 35% of the vote in 2016 which makes the possibility of Bobi Wine winning not that remote...

Besigye is not the only established opposition politician who has had to face the Bobi Wine challenge...

Bobi Wine still operates under the banner of the People Power movement which is not a political party...

He could state that he must out of loyalty back the candidate the FDC picks and cite that as a reason for not backing Bobi Wine...

FDC insiders jealous of Bobi Wine's success hope that the ruling party will crush his election campaign leaving Besigye's credentials as the main opposition figure intact...

In the wake of the recent brutal attacks by security forces on protestors in Kampala pundits ponder why the formidable mass movement of Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) cannot join forces...

Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine stormed to victory in the Kyadondo East by-election in July 2017 even though the opposition FDC also stood in the poll and has consistently defied the government by attracting thousands to anti-government protests (AC Vol 59 No 18 Wave of protests rattles Museveni)...

Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine stormed to victory in the Kyadondo East by-election in July 2017 even though the opposition FDC also stood in the poll and has consistently defied the government by attracting thousands to anti-government protests (AC Vol 59 No 18 Wave of protests rattles Museveni)...

Bobi Wine's unconventional People Power movement could be barred from uniting with Besigye's FDC which is a registered political party...

None of the above can compete with Bobi Wine's short but impressive political record or his obvious mass appeal to Uganda's youth some 70% of the population...

Besigye and Bobi Wine have spent two years pledging to cooperate with one another without making the union official...

Bobi Wine had repeatedly asked the FDC to make him its candidate at Kyadondo East but he was rebuffed by then party president Muntu supposedly because he hadn't been an FDC member for five years...

Early in November Besigye was asked on national TV why he could not unite with Bobi Wine replying that they 'believe in different things'...

If he boycotted however he would leave the field clear for Bobi Wine...

Bobi Wine's own strategy while hoping that the FDC will support him is to reproduce his by-election victory on a national scale and to build a national network so strong that the size of his vote is too large to be manipulated away by ballot-stuffing and other manoeuvres...

Senior FDC members are resistant and even ridicule Bobi Wine's appeal for mass voter-registration...

One FDC accusation on social media was that Bobi Wine was being tribalist by appealing for voter registration in the language of the largest ethnic group the Baganda...

Besigye apologised immediately for the comment but ill-feeling remains at grassroots level with Bobi Wine supporters accusing the veteran oppositionist of jealousy...

More old-fashioned members of the opposition regard Bobi Wine as a 'queue-jumper'...

Bobi Wine is seen by many as a worthy inheritor of Besigye's record of opposition but in State House President Museveni has had endless trouble finding someone to succeed him...

The media has hesitated to cover protests since April when the Uganda Broadcasting Commission accused broadcasters of breaching standards by covering marches and arrests of Bobi Wine and other opposition leaders...