The presidential candidate in the 2021 presidential election in Uganda spoke in an exclusive interview with 90MinutesAfrica's Rudolf Okonkwo in New York City.
Ugandan musical superstar cum politician Bobi Wine has explained why he is reluctant to engage in the debate on gay rights in his country.
The presidential candidate in the 2021 presidential election in Uganda spoke in an exclusive interview with 90MinutesAfrica's Rudolf Okonkwo in New York City.
The former Member of Parliament said he only refrains from commenting on the topic because his political enemies could use it against him.
"The anti-gay law was brought against the opposition, including myself," Bobi Wine said.
"Yoweri Museveni has always wanted to paint us as agents of the West. So I always refrain myself from commenting because they could use any of my comments against me or against people that are close to me."
Gay rights have often been a difficult subject in Africa. Most of the countries in the continent have laws stipulating severe punishments for gays. During the 2021 presidential campaign in Uganda, the incumbent president Yoweri Museveni accused Bobi Wine of being a promoter of homosexuality.
However, the rockstar insists that gay rights are not a pressing issue in Africa. He said he would like to see the international community be as assertive in matters of human rights violations across the continent as they are about gay rights.
"In November 2020, over two hundred people, including women and children, were massacred on the streets of Uganda, and the international community did nothing beyond one or two statements of condemnation," Bobi Wine lamented.
"Within a month, aids have started flocking back into Uganda. Those people that were killed had a right to live. So we really want to see the international community be as assertive on these rights as they are on gay rights."
Speaking on the plight of Ugandans under President Museveni, Bobi Wine said the people of Uganda had suffered a hundred times more under Museveni than it happened under the dictatorship of Idi Amin. Idi Amin oppressed Ugandans for only eight years, but Museveni has done that for 37 years," the subject of the new National Geographic Documentary Film called "Bobi Wine: The People's President" said.
Narrating his ordeals in the hands of Yoweri Museveni, Bobi Wine said: "I'm an illegal citizen in Uganda."
The opposition leader said that Museveni believes all 45 million Ugandan citizens are his property, but "we are fighting to prove him wrong.