Security forces in Uganda have detained more than 300 supporters and officials from the party of opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine since campaigning for a January election kicked off last month, his party’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Pop star-turned-politician Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is challenging 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni for the\u00a0second time after coming second<\/a> in the last election in 2021.<\/p>\n Now\u00a0Africa’s fourth longest-ruling leader<\/a>, Museveni’s government has\u00a0changed<\/a>\u00a0the constitution twice to remove age and term limits, allowing him to remain in office since 1986.<\/p>\n The arrests included scores detained this week in the capital Kampala, where Wine began campaigning on Monday, Joel Ssenyonyi, spokesperson for Wine’s party National Unity Platform (NUP), told Reuters.<\/p>\n “Over 300 have been detained since the campaigns started. The regime is in panic, they are resorting to arrests to deter and instil fear in our people,” Ssenyonyi said.<\/p>\n The majority of those detained are ordinary supporters but also include campaign coordinators, Wine’s aides and other officials, he said.<\/p>\n Police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.<\/p>\n At a rally in Kampala’s Kawempe area on Monday security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a crowd of Wine’s supporters, video aired by local broadcaster NTV showed.<\/p>\n A video posted on Wine’s X account late on Monday also showed police using pepper spray on his supporters. A man in plain clothes who approached from the side of the security personnel was seen beating supporters using a cane.<\/p>\n At least 100 people were arrested on Monday and dozens more detained on Tuesday at another rally on the outskirts of Kampala, Ssenyonyi said.<\/p>\n Police said in a statement late on Monday that they had detained seven people after clashes with Wine’s supporters, accusing them of throwing stones and injuring seven officers.<\/p>\n “Security personnel responded by using public order measures to control rowdy crowds,” the statement said.<\/p>\n Wine says Museveni won the last election through ballot-stuffing, intimidation of voters, bribery and other rigging tactics. Ruling party officials have dismissed the accusation.<\/p>\n If he wins a new five-year term, Museveni will extend his rule in the East African country to nearly half a century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Security forces in Uganda have detained more than 300 supporters and officials from the party of opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine since campaigning for a January election kicked off last month, his party’s spokesperson said on Tuesday. Pop star-turned-politician Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is challenging 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni for the\u00a0second time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33],"tags":[130,195,132,462],"class_list":["post-18708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-bobi-wine","tag-robert-kyagulanyi","tag-uganda","tag-yoweri-museveni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}