Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has held power since 1986 and the advantages of
incumbency should see him to a 6th term in elections due early in 2021. But he faces a
young challenger in Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Afrobeats singer Bobi Wine, who
built his “People Power” movement after becoming an independent MP in 2017, then
launching a political party in July 2020. The self-styled “ghetto president” promises his
mostly young, mostly poor, red-beret-wearing supporters relief from Mr Museveni, who
is using the pandemic to launch a police crackdown and harass and intimidate his
political opponents. The odds are against Mr Kyagulanyi, but he just might uncork a
flood of popular sentiment that carries him to power.
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