Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine shot

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Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine was taken to hospital after being shot during a confrontation with police on Tuesday on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, his party said. 

The National Unity Platform said on X that security operatives had “made an attempt on the life” of the politician and added that the ex-pop singer, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, had “been rushed to hospital for urgent medical attention”.

Security forces “surrounded our vehicles and started firing live bullets, tear gas canisters”, the opposition party said, after Wine had gone to “check on one of our lawyers”.

A video posted by the party shows the musician-turned-opposition leader in pain after being shot in the leg. The former member of parliament was helped up and into a waiting car by members of his team as a police pick-up truck left.

Wine ran for president in 2021, losing to the long-standing Yoweri Museveni in an election he claimed was rigged against him. The president has held power since 1986 having used, critics say, every organ of state to his advantage.

During the 2021 campaign, Wine was shot at, beaten and thrown in jail. Scores of his supporters were killed and his campaign events were stormed by police. His trademark red beret was outlawed. 

In 2019, police pummelled Wine unconscious with an iron bar and, he claimed, used pliers on his testicles. “I have been targeted with bullets and tear gas canisters, and wounded by the police,” Wine told the Financial Times afterwards.

“This is yet another attempt on the life of our president by the Museveni regime!” the NUP said.

“Is this a curtainraiser for 2026 election violence?” asked Sarah Bireete, director of the Center for Constitutional Governance in Kampala. She was referring to the next presidential election when the 42-year-old Wine could again face the 79-year-old Museveni.

In July, Wine condemned the government’s response to anti-corruption rallies. He expressed solidarity with “courageous” protesters who had taken to the streets in the face of “very brutal actions by the military and police”.

After Tuesday’s incident, the Uganda Police Force said that Wine had been invited to a thanksgiving ceremony on the outskirts of Kampala which passed off peacefully but that, afterwards, he and his team had embarked on a procession against police advice, “leading to police intervention”.

“Police officers on site claim he stumbled while getting into his vehicle, causing the injury,” the statement continues, “whereas Hon Kyagulanyi and his team assert that he was shot. An investigation will be conducted to clarify the facts.”