Kampala: Bobi Wine, a rapper and pop star turned politician, has vowed to oust President Yoweri Museveni from power. Last month the 36-year-old singer, who was born Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was beaten and tortured by police and flew to the United States for treatment of his injuries. Many people assumed he would be going into exile but he returned and gave a stirring speech, promising to oust Museveni and his ageing cronies. Bobi Wine was only four years old when Museveni came to power in 1986 when his rebel army, the National Resistance Movement, ousted a corrupt government a year after his arch-enemy Milton Obote had been toppled in a military coup.
Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and founder of Democracy In Africa, said power had changed him. "His early image as a reformer and new breed of leader has now well and truly been destroyed," Cheeseman said. "Museveni remains in power for a number of reasons - he believes he needs to do so in order to secure his legacy, he and his allies have too many vested interests in remaining in power, there is no obvious replacement, and the NRM regime is strong enough to divide and rule the opposition," Cheeseman said.
Museveni was the darling of the West for years as he brought back peace, stability and free market economics to a country that under Obote and his predecessor Idi Amin had known only violence, civil war and flirtations with socialism. But in recent years there has been a growing feeling that Museveni, who turned 74 last week, has overstayed his welcome. Last year Bobi Wine produced the hugely popular song Freedom, which contained several abrasive lyrics aimed at Museveni.
