The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Meets the People Power Movement in Uganda

“Your time is over, your time is over, your time is over,” a group of young people chanting to Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at a recent rally organized by the President of Uganda. Ironically, the President can organise mass gatherings of more than 25 people in public, but no one else in Uganda can. The political wave in Uganda is turning against the liberation President who has been in power since 1986. This is following the tide of the Alliance for Freedom & Change just up north in Sudan that led to President Omar al-Bashir stepping down in April 2019. Where political parties have been banned from campaigning, rallying, and organizing, a different approach to advance freedom became necessary.

Enter the People Power movement led by Uganda’s popular musician and Member of Parliament Kyadondo East Uganda, Honorable Robert Kyagulanyi also known as “Bobi Wine”. “The world is looking for somebody to do something, not explain why he did not.” This is the personal information written in bold on Bobi Wine’s public media platforms. People Power is a freedom movement in Uganda that is seeking “democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Uganda in this lifetime.” Several attempts to silence Bobi Wine and the People Power movement has been made since their inception. Their leader Bobi Wine has been imprisoned for “annoying the President”, their members have been attacked in public and attempts on their lives have been made in the name of silencing the movement. These attempts, however, have done little to stop the movement. With a drive to make a change from freedom, they keep moving forward.

Bobi Wine and the People Power movement recently announced that their leader will be running for President in the 2021 General Elections in Uganda. “Don’t get guns, get your National ID’s” he says to the youth in Uganda. A lot of violence comes to the surface.