Bobi Wine, still under house arrest, says no food left for relatives baby

Bobi Wine, still under house arrest, says no food left for relatives baby

Besieged opposition leader Bobi Wine has revealed that he has been under house arrest with an 18 month-old-baby whose food has run out.

Taking to Twitter, the Ugandan lawmaker said the child and the father had visited them before they were placed under house arrest.

“Day Six under house arrest and we’re still stuck with an 18 months old baby who had paid a visit to her auntie (my wife ) be4 we were raided & besieged. The Dad has been denied access to her. We have run out of food and milk. No one is allowed to leave or come into our compound,” he said.

Meanwhile, Uganda has accused the U.S. ambassador of seeking to subvert last week’s presidential election by trying to visit Wine at his home, which has been surrounded by security forces since the vote.

Troops prevented pop star-turned-legislator from leaving his house shortly after he returned from voting in Thursday’s presidential election.

Museveni, 76, who has been in power since 1986, was declared winner of the poll with 59% of the vote against 35% for Wine.

The U.S. embassy said late on Monday that Ambassador Natalie E. Brown had been stopped from visiting Wine at his residence in a suburb in the northern outskirts of the capital.

The mission said Brown wanted to check on his health and safety given that he was effectively unable to leave his home.

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said Brown had no business visiting Wine, who the army says is being held to prevent potential unrest breaking out in the wake of the result.

“What she has been trying to do blatantly is to meddle in Uganda’s internal politics, particularly elections, to subvert our elections and the will of the people,” he said. “She shouldn’t do anything outside the diplomatic norms.”

There was no immediate comment from Brown or the embassy.

The public rebuke to the United States from the Ugandan government is relatively unusual as the two nations are allies.

FILE PHOTO | Uganda President Yoweri Museveni with U.S. envoy Natalie Brown.
FILE PHOTO | Uganda President Yoweri Museveni with U.S. envoy Natalie Brown.

 

Washington supports Ugandan soldiers serving in an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and has donated about $1.5 billion to Uganda’s health sector in the past three years.

GOVERNMENT “WATCHING” AMBASSADOR

Opondo said, without providing any evidence, that Brown had a track record of causing trouble in countries where she has worked in the past. The government was watching her, he said.

The U.S. embassy has said last week’s vote was tainted by harassment of opposition candidates, suppression of media and rights advocates and a nationwide internet shutdown.

“These unlawful actions and the effective house arrest of a presidential candidate continue a worrying trend on the course of Uganda’s democracy,” it said in the statement on Monday.

The United States and the European Union did not deploy observer missions for the polls. Washington said Ugandan authorities had denied accreditation while Brussels said they had not implemented the recommendations of previous missions.

On Tuesday, Wine’s lawyers filed a petition in the high court challenging the legality of detaining Wine and his wife without charge. The court has not yet said when the petition will be heard, lawyer Benjamin Katana told Reuters.

During the campaign, security forces routinely broke up Wine’s rallies with teargas, bullets, beatings and detentions, citing violations of laws meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

In November, 54 people were killed as security forces quelled a protest that erupted after Wine was detained for alleged violation of the anti-coronavirus measures.

Wine and his National Unity Platform (NUP) have rejected the results and said they were planning a court challenge.

On Monday, security forces cordoned off the party’s offices in the capital. The party said that was aimed at complicating their efforts to collect evidence of irregularities committed during the election.

Additional report from Reuters

Tags:

Museveni uganda bobi

Want to send us a story? Submit on Wananchi Reporting on the Citizen Digital App or Send an email to wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke or Send an SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp on 0743570000

Leave a Comment

Comments

No comments yet.

latest stories