KAMPALA. National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential flag bearer Robert Kyagulanyi , popularly known as Bobi Wine, has rallied Ugandans to love their country more despite the untold suffering they are going through .
Addressing a mammoth rally at Kaala Play Ground in Nateete , on the outskirts of Kampala , moments after nominations on Wednesday ,Mr Kyagulanyi said the four decades under President Museveni have been marked by repression and economic injustice ,but Ugandans can reverse this by electing change .
“For 40 long years, one man and a small group of his relatives and friends have ruled our country at gunpoint, this is the reason we need to vote them out and liberate our country,” he said, adding
“They have looted our nation and turned every institution of government into a tool of oppression. They have reduced the citizens of Uganda into slaves on their own land,” he emphasised as his fans cheered him on.
“They have reduced all of us into beggars, and they’ve turned our poverty into a tool of control, and yet, our country is not poor, our country is rich.”
Bobi urged his supporters to wave the flag with pride. Holding up the party flag, Kyagulanyi urged his supporters to embrace a sense of shared ownership of the country.
“Hold the flag with pride. Uganda belongs to us. We all have equal shares,” he said to thunderous chants from the crowd.
Kyagulanyi’s nomination marks his second attempt at dislodge Museveni , after the 2021 polls which were marred by wide spread brutality and electoral irregularities.
His wife, Barbie Itungo Kyagulanyi, reinforced the husband’s message with a direct appeal to voters.
“If you give Bobi votes, he will liberate Uganda from the abyss,” said Barbie.
“He promoted and fought for the interests of Kyadondo East. He will not let Uganda down,” she told supporters.
“You’ll never regret voting for Kyagulanyi.”
Museveni, 81, who was nominated on Tuesday, is running on the ticket of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). He has pitched his campaign around consolidating Uganda’s “hard-won gains” and steering the country into middle-income status after nearly four decades in power.
The Electoral Commission has closed the nominations with eight candidates for the January 12 polls .
Alongside Museveni and Kyagulanyi are Robert Kasibante of the National Peasants Party (NPP), Joseph Mabirizi of the Conservative Party (CP), James Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Gregory Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Mubarak Munyagwa Sserunga of the Common Man’s Party (CMP), and Frank Bulira Kabinga of the Revolutionary People’s Party (RPP). Campaigns will officially kickoff on September 29 .