Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine still under house arrest after presidential election
- The runner-up in the election has not left his home since the election on Thursday, with no one allowed access to see him
- Wine and his wife were said to have run out of food, and an MP who had attempted to visit was ‘brutalised’ by government security forces
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine remains under house arrest, his party said on Sunday, after a disputed election returned President Yoweri Museveni to office for a sixth term.
The former ragga singer turned lawmaker came second in the presidential election, and has said the process was marred by widespread fraud and violence.
He has not left his home since he went out to vote in the election on Thursday, and on Friday said he was under “siege” as soldiers and police surrounded his home, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
“Our leader … is effectively under house arrest,” National Unity Platform (NUP) spokesman Joel Ssenyonyi told a press conference, adding that no one was being allowed access. “His home is not a detention facility. We are very concerned about the state in which he is in, and his wife.”
A Twitter update under Wine’s account, written by an administrator as Uganda remains under an internet blackout for a fifth day, said the couple had “run out of food supplies”.
The party said prominent MP Francis Zaake, who had been arrested during an attempted visit to Wine’s house on Friday, had been admitted to hospital “badly beaten and brutalised” by security forces.