Uganda’s opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has pledged to guarantee the safety of President Museveni should the incumbent accept defeat in the upcoming General Election.
Bobi Wine, the flagbearer of the National Unity Platform (NUP), made the remarks on Friday while addressing supporters at Malare playgrounds in Mbale City, his first rally in the Industrial City Division during the campaign.
‘We have just over 10 days to reach ‘liberation day’, and in the new Uganda everything will change. President Museveni is finishing his term and we have already started transition. If he accepts defeat and hands over the presidency, we will protect him,’ Bobi Wine said.
The opposition leader was welcomed into Mbale City at around 1:30 pm by large crowds of supporters amid a heavy deployment of police and military personnel.
His supporters had waited for him since early morning at the Sino Uganda Industrial Park before he was routed through the industrial area to Maluku and later to Malare playgrounds.
Uganda goes to the polls on January 15 to elect a president and Members of Parliament.
Bobi Wine maintained that signs indicated that Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) were losing support, blaming the president’s nearly four-decade rule for persistent unemployment, poverty and poor health services.
‘We have defeated President Museveni already. For instance, the Electoral Commission knows we are campaigning in Mbale City, but they have refused us to pass through the city. They have a battalion of army and police not to protect people but to intimidate them,’ Bobi Wine stated as he accused security forces of attempting to provoke unrest.
‘Today, they wanted to provoke us so they can arrest me, so that you protest and they find a reason to kill people,’ he added.
Police responded saying: ‘We categorically dismiss allegations of a scheme to detain candidate Kyagulanyi or engineer incidents before Election Day. These assertions are unfounded and provocative.’
Bobi Wine warned police and military officers against abusing civilians, saying they would be held accountable under a new administration.
‘You are civil servants. You will be around when Museveni leaves power. Don’t do criminal activities because you will individually be held accountable in the new Uganda,’ he said.
He also pledged an end to tribalism and favoritism, promising equal opportunity in employment.
‘There will be no special tribe. We will be equal, and every Ugandan will be able to get a job on merit,’ he said.
Addressing economic concerns in the Bugisu sub-region, Bobi Wine said coffee farmers had not benefited adequately under the current government.
‘You grow coffee but this government grabbed coffee from you. When I become president that will change. Uganda, we will have health centres with drugs, a good railway and prosperity,’ he promised.
He urged supporters to mobilize voters across the sub-region.
‘Forty years of pain must be brought to an end. This is not Bobi Wine’s struggle but all of us,’ Bobi Wine said.