Uganda’s Bobi Wine on Obstacles to His Presidential Campaign

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Tell me why you’re taking this risk.

BOBI WINE, UGANDAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much for having me, Christiane. And pardon me if I looked too spaced. I have just been forced out of three districts tonight, where the police officers are not allowing me to sleep in those districts. Right now, I’m in Arua, and the only hotel that was willing to take me for a night in a hotel where my driver was shot dead, and I also survived death on the 13th of August in 2018. But I’m happy to be here. I am taking this risk because it is worth it, and because nobody else is going to do it other than we ourselves. And in any case, not taking the risk is even taking a bigger risk, because nobody is safe, those that stay at home and keep silent about the enslavement and we who speak out. That is why I dare represent my people in this trouble.

AMANPOUR: So, you know, I said many people are — weren’t even born when the president first came to power. In fact, 80 percent of the Ugandan people are under the age of 35, which is how long he, Museveni, has been in power. But what is it that makes you believe that somebody who’s held onto power for this number of years is ripe for a challenge and potentially could be defeated by somebody such as yourself?

WINE: Well, I was also 4 years when President Museveni took charge of our country. But, like you mentioned, the biggest part of our population is under the age of 35. Precisely over 80 percent of our population is my age and below. These are the disconnected young people, the unemployed, the excluded. They have no — our country has been divided into the haves and have-nots. So, these are the masses looking and searching for a different — searching for better, searching for change, but, most importantly, wanting to be free in their country, wanting their voice to be heard. That is the constituency that I am representing. What gives me confidence that we can overwhelm the dictatorship is the history, the recent history in Africa. The young people did it in the Gambia. The young people did it in the Sudan. The young people have done it all through history. That is why I believe that, if we stick by the law, if we come out massively and vote, we can be able to overwhelm the dictatorship of President Museveni, and, for the first time in our life, also have a taste of true freedom.