Ugandan Musician and Politician Prevented from Seeking Foreign Medical Treatment

Ugandan singer-turned-politician Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, was arrested on Thursday while attempting to seek medical treatment abroad.

Kyagulanyi — who faces treason charges alongside 32 others after President Yoweri Museveni’s car window was allegedly broken by a tossed stone — had been arrested but granted bail on Monday before he was seized again by police.

“The Uganda Police have violently blocked Bobi Wine from travelling outside of the country in spite of the court declining to do so when being released on bail earlier in the week,” said his Ugandan lawyer Nicholas Opiyo.

“This is absurd to say the least.”

During his bail hearing on Monday, the judge had allowed Kyagulanyi to keep his passport, against the wishes of state prosecutors.

The MP’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said: “Bobi Wine was fully within his rights to travel for medical treatment. Again, he has done nothing wrong. Again, he has broken no law. And again, the police beat him and detained him and will later make up some sort of false excuse.”

Kyagulanyi’s supporters say that he was badly beaten and tortured while in army custody, during and after his arrest in the northwestern town of Arua earlier this month, and requires medical treatment abroad.

Opiyo also accused authorities of wanting “to create their own medical records” to hide evidence of torture.

The 36-year-old pop singer joined politics last year and has become a lightning rod for youthful opposition to the long rule of Museveni, 74, who has held power since 1986.