How I Was Arrested At Kampala Airport, Placed Under House Arrest After Return To Uganda, Opposition Leader, Bobi Wine Narrates Experience

Ugandan opposition leader and actor, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known by his stage name Bobi Wine has narrated how he was arrested on Thursday at Entebbe International Airport near the country’s capital, Kampala.

Wine said he was violently taken away by security operatives at the airport and had been placed on house arrest.

He further narrated that his house had been surrounded by armed security operatives.

In a statement obtained by SaharaReporters on Friday, Bobi Wine said, “I am at my home in Uganda. I was grabbed off the plane by armed men dressed as airport workers and dragged into a waiting private car on the Tamark. They drove me to a nearby army base, where they changed me into another car and drove me home.”

“I did not officially/legally enter the country through immigration. My house is now surrounded by dozens of soldiers and policemen,” he added.

Wine, a popstar-turned-politician, was the main opposition frontrunner in the presidential elections in January 2021 and lost to President Yoweri Museveni.

Museveni claimed he had been re-elected for a sixth term despite widespread allegations of fraud and intimidation. Wine rejected the election results, saying he had evidence of fraud and intimidation.

The news about Wine’s arrest was first made public by The National Unity Platform (NUP) via its social media post.

“How President @HEBobiwine has been violently arrested upon his return to Uganda. We are yet to establish his whereabouts,” the platform wrote on X.

“Bobi Wine ‘under house arrest’ after return to Uganda,” it added in another post on X.

Similarly in December 2021, Wine revealed that security forces had surrounded his residence and put him under house arrest before a planned campaign rally.

In a series of tweets, Wine, who had been arrested several times in recent years, said police and military officers deployed overnight had barred him from leaving his house.

“The military has increased deployment around my home. No one is allowed to leave or enter,” Bobi Wine said on Twitter, accusing longtime President Yoweri Museveni of placing him “under house arrest”.

“Our security guard and gardener have been violently arrested and beaten,” Bobi Wine said, adding that they had been “bundled” into a police vehicle outside his gate and their phones confiscated.