Faith Nyasuguta
On Thursday, Uganda opposition party National Unity Platform (NUP) said their principal Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, had been picked by security operatives at Entebbe International Airport upon arrival and whisked away.
“He was picked off the plane and driven to an unknown destination. Up to now, we cannot speculate his whereabouts,” NUP Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya told journalists at a security checkpoint along Entebbe-Kampala highway where he had been blocked from proceeding to the airport.
A video recording making rounds on social media showed a group of non-uniformed security operatives grabbing Bobi Wine as he set foot off the plane before shoving him into a waiting vehicle that sped off to an unknown destination followed by a chain of security vans.
Bobi Wine was nabbed alongside Katikamu South Member of Parliament, Hassan Kirumira.
According to NUP officials, over 300 of their supporters were also arrested between Wednesday and Thursday morning ahead of the party president’s arrival from his mobilisation tours in Canada and South Africa.
At the same time, there has been a heavy deployment of police and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) at Kyagulanyi’s home in Magere, Wakiso District.
A video recording shared on social media by Kyagulanyi’s wife, Barbie Itungo, showed a police helicopter hovering over their roof.
“There’s heavy deployment outside. See the police helicopter hovering over our roof. My husband has not yet arrived. He was taken upon his arrival at Entebbe. I’m here alone with the children,” she said moments before one of their security guards was also arrested from the home.
Police are yet to comment on the said arrest.
On Wednesday, however, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango had warned that the procession to welcome Kyagulanyi was illegal and would likely disrupt traffic flow as well as attract acts of criminality.
“The organisers of this welcome back event are advised to stop the mobilisation and members of the public are also advised not to participate in an illegality.”
“Security agencies will make sure that no one engages in illegal possession and whoever will be arrested will be taken to courts of law,” Onyango told journalists in Kampala on Wednesday.
For a long time, the return of politicians at Entebbe International Airport has been chaotic.
In May 2011 during the swearing-in of President Yoweri Museveni, there were running battles between supporters of Dr Kizza Besigye, who had lost a presidential election, and the police as his followers welcomed him from Nairobi, Kenya, where he had gone for treatment.
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