Bobi Wine, the pop singer campaigning to become Uganda’s president in Thursday’s election, has lost count of the number of times he has been violently harassed since he threw his hat in the electoral ring.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve been arrested. But, for the last 69 days, I’ve been arrested almost every day but detained only about 11 times. I’ve been shot at four times.
“All this time it is my car that has been shot by live bullets deflating all the tyres. And one of the times the bullets shattered through my windscreen, I am only glad that I’m still alive,” he told the Financial Times as he campaigned in eastern Uganda.
At 38, Mr Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni, 76, a former rebel fighter who has been in power since 1986 when he overthrew Milton Obote, whose rule followed the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. Mr Wine styles himself the “ghetto president” after his tough…