On Monday, May 20, 2024, the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party leader, Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, stormed the offices of the Uganda Human Rights Commission to withdraw the petition he had filed in 2018 against human rights violations.
Kyagulanyi, who withdrew his complaint against security personnel for blocking his concert, chaotically withdrew his petition, citing bias in the manner in which the commission handled the matter.
This has attracted sharp criticism from Bobi Wine’s former ally against the regime, Dr. Stella Nyanzi, who went into self-exile in Germany.
“The inconsistencies of Bobi Wine keep growing. Yesterday (Monday, May 20, 2024), he withdrew his 5-year case from UHRC’s tribunal because it violated rights,” Dr. Nyanzi said.
In a short message shared on her X-account on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, Dr. Nyanzi said, “On Saturday, his bodyguards beat up GREMAJA’s women journalists covering a funeral in Lwengo district and also destroyed cameras.”
Margret Kayondo and Zainab Namusaazi, reporters for Radio Ssimba and NBS TV, respectively, faced an assault on May 18, 2024, allegedly by vigilantes safeguarding Kyagulanyi, of Uganda’s largest opposition party.
“As a feminist from Masaka district who trained in journalism, I condemn the violent hooliganism and misogynistic brutality of Bobi Wine’s bodyguards who beat up women journalists at their jobs. What leadership is NUP giving women? Hypocritical double standards, just!” Dr. Nyanzi said.
Dr. Stella Nyanzi, who is the latest to sharply criticize Bobi Wine, is a Ugandan human rights advocate, poet, medical anthropologist, feminist, queer rights advocate, and scholar of sexuality, family planning, and public health.
She was arrested in 2017 for insulting the Ugandan president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, and later went into self-exile in Germany, where she currently lives with her family.
The incident unfolded during the burial ceremony of Pasikaali Ssekasamba, a London-based businessman, at Manja village in Lwengo district. The journalists recounted that vigilantes, led by Achileo Kivumbi and an unidentified person in a black mask, targeted them for documenting events during the funeral, particularly focusing on Abed Bwanika’s speech, the Member of Parliament for Kimaanya-Kabonera division.
Kayondo shared her ordeal, stating, “I was filming Bwanika’s speech when a bodyguard noticed and attacked me, demanding to know what I was recording. He forcefully took my phone, wrestled me down, and nobody intervened.”
Robert Ssempala, the Executive Director, HRNJ-Uganda, expressed concern, saying, “Journalists should be kept safe at all times as they do their noble work of correcting and reporting news. The culprits in this unwarranted assault on journalists should be held personally liable.”
