Uganda’s opposition leader Bobi Wine told AFP on Wednesday he was “not a criminal” after going into hiding following last week’s election in which President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term.
Wine, 43, a former singer turned politician who was arrested ahead of Uganda’s last election in 2021, said on Saturday that he had escaped a police raid on his home. His whereabouts have been unknown since then.
He had denounced last Thursday’s presidential election as “blatant theft”.
In a phone interview, Wine said he was constantly on the move but was being “housed and protected by the common people”.
Responding to a threat by Uganda’s army chief and Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, he said: “I’m not a criminal.”
“I’m a presidential candidate and it’s not a crime to run against his father,” Wine — whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi — said.
On Tuesday, Kainerugaba, 51, who has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father, threatened in a post on X to hunt down and kill Wine.
