By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Ugandans will go to the poll on January 14 to decide whether to retain the 77-year-old strongman, Yoweri Museveni as president for another seven years.
Museveni has ruled the country since 1986. Another win would guarantee his stay in office till 2028. And since Uganda has no presidential term limit, he could as well continue to rule till death.
The East African country is also presented with another choice in the 39-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine. He is a rapper and a fresh parliamentarian who was first elected into parliament in 2017.
Bobi Wine has a broad support, especially from the youthful population of the country who make up the bulk of the electorates. But Africa’s election is not all about popularity. Who controls state apparatus determines everything, not the electorates.
Just a day to the opening of the poll, Museveni shutdown social media over claims that Facebook was taking side against the ruling party.
Uganda’s communications regulator ordered internet service providers to shut down all social media and messaging services.
Bobi Wine whose major campaign platform is the social media, will be the most affected by this clampdown. And in the event of election manipulation, his agents will be unable to escalate it for the world to see.
Museveni, an old horse in the game of power, may return as Uganda’s president, not on account of his popularity. He has lost the goodwill of the people, especially the youths. But using state power.
Museveni, who was born on September 15, 1944, was involved in rebellions that toppled Ugandan leaders Idi Amin (1971–79) and Milton Obote (1980–85) before he captured power in the 1980s.
For Bobi Wine, he was born on February 12, 1982. He attended attended Kitante Hill School, where he attained his Uganda Certificate of Education in 1996, as well as Kololo Senior Secondary School, where he attained his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education in 1998.
He then attended Makerere University in Kampala, where he studied music, dance, and drama, graduating with a diploma in 2003. In 2016, Kyagulanyi returned to university to study law at the International University of East Africa (IUEA).