A Pop Star, a Protest, and a Likely Case of Torture in Uganda
Editor’s Note: The author, a researcher whose work focuses on a range of politically sensitive topics in contemporary Uganda, is remaining anonymous to protect the safety of sources in the country.
It has been over 10 days since the Twitter account of the Ugandan member of Parliament commonly known as Bobi Wine went silent. The last time the wildly popular Afropop singer-turned-legislator (whose legal name is Robert Kyagulanyi) tweeted to his followers, it was to post a grim bulletin. “Police has shot my driver dead thinking they've shot at me,” he reported last Monday from the town of Arua, where he had traveled to support an opposition candidate in a local parliamentary by-election. “My hotel is now coddoned [sic] off by police and SFC [Special Forces Command].”
The was accompanied by a grisly photograph of a man slumped forward in the front seat of a car, his head lolling against a blood-smeared backrest. Media would soon identify the man as , a 40-year-old chauffeur and father of 11, beloved in his community as the devoted coach of a youth soccer team. Kawuma had indeed been killed, just as his employer reported, and in the hours that followed it would become increasingly unclear if Bobi Wine himself was dead or alive.
