Bobby Wayne set up his own party for the presidential election in Uganda

Kampala, July 22 (EFE) – Ugandan musician and lawmaker Robert Kyagolani, better known as Bobby Wayne, on Wednesday announced the creation of a new political party ahead of the general presidential election scheduled for early 2021.

The party’s name is the National Unity Platform (NUP), and according to Wayne himself, the party embodies the political arm of the citizens’ movement he founded in 2017 known as “People Power.”

“I am here today to announce to the nation that we are presenting the National Unity Platform, the political wing of the People Power Movement,” said the Ugandan pop star at a ceremony in the Ugandan capital, whose symbol will be a red and white umbrella. Kampala.

“Now we are a political party and we will answer all questions of those who ask what we are as an entity,” local media quoted the legislator as saying.

The announcement comes a day after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni collected the nomination documents to once again present his candidacy for the leadership of the ruling National Resistance Movement.

In June 2017, after winning a Parliament seat representing the Kiadondo region, Wayne began a meteoric career soon after that would place him as one of the most critical voices against the Museveni government in power since 1986.

At the age of 38, the folk singer is the only one capable of rallying young, urban, but still minority audiences in the anti-government protests against the Museveni regime – who has come to describe him as a “dictator” – actions that in turn have cost him alleged arrests and beatings by the police.

His strength was demonstrated at the meeting in mid-2018, when thousands of Ugandans, wearing the distinctive red hats he always wore, took to the streets to protest against the alleged torture he had been subjected to in police custody.

Last June, the Ugandan Election Commission confirmed that the presidential elections will be held between January 10 and February 8, 2021, although it has warned that public gatherings will not be held to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, Bobby Wayne has revealed in various interviews some details of what the government will be like under his leadership, with elements “from both capitalism and socialism” in order to favor “private initiatives and entrepreneurship for Ugandans”, while keeping the state delivering basic services like electricity.

Museveni, 75, previously participated in the military rebellions to topple Ugandan Presidents Idi Amin (1971-1979) and Milton Obote (1980-1985) and have ruled the country since 1986 with almost no political opposition. EFE