Bobi Wine, the head of the opposition in Uganda, was detained on Thursday while he was travelling back to his country from South Africa, a top party source reported.
“Our President (Bobi Wine) picked up by regime operatives as soon as he landed at the airport,” David Lewis Rubongoya, the general secretary of Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) said on X, formerly Twitter.
As part of what his party referred to as a mobilisation drive of the Ugandan diaspora, Wine was in South Africa this week.
A picture that appeared to show two guys grabbing Rubongoya by the arms on the tarmac of Entebbe International Airport was attached to the post by Rubongoya.
To welcome him return, Wine’s followers had intended to accompany him in large numbers to his house north of Kampala, but authorities had said that such gatherings were prohibited.
Due to concerns over public order, Ugandan police stated last month that they would forbid demonstrations across the nation coordinated by the National Unity Platform.
Wine, a former musician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is a well-known opponent of President Yoweri Museveni’s administration and has previously been the target of multiple arrests and allegations of human rights violations.
In 2021, he launched an unsuccessful run for the President against Museveni, who is in his sixth term as president.
Wine’s followers have protested against his prior detentions and arrests.
