A fortnight ago, social media was awash with pictures of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine aloft huge armory of the embattled Ukraine.
Just a few days before the incident, Bobi Wine had posted another picture posing at the Ukraine media center indicating that he had gone to show solidarity for the people of Ukraine who are in the middle of a war with Russia.
“In Kyiv-Ukraine to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people and leadership against Russia’s war of aggression and occupation. If the dictators stand by each other, the democrats should stand by each other too. It’s dangerous but noble,” Bobi Wine posted on his official social media platforms.
The visit, however, has been received with a mixture of feelings from experts who have described the visit as a lurking potential for a diplomatic war while many wondered how the musician-turned-politician managed to enter a war torn area.
The political experts indicate that staying at the fence, like President Museveni did for the move when he was put on the spot at the start of the war.
During one of the interviews with our reporter, Mr Moses Wamala, a political analyst indicated that Bobi Wine risked his life but also the relationship that Ukraine might have with the Ugandan government thereafter.
“This is a bold move but how does it affect Uganda? We need to know that the relationships between the two countries must continue but also his life was at stake,”Mr Wamala says.
During the press conference at the NUP headquarters on Wednesday, Bobi Wine explained some of the reasons he went to Ukraine indicating that there was more than meets the eye in their discussions.
“We went to stand in solidarity with the brave people of Ukraine who are successfully staving off the existential threat that a Russian invasion ordered against them by President Putin presents. We also wanted to experience first-hand how life is for people there amidst the invasion. As I already stated, we firmly believe that Ukraine deserves the right to determine its own affairs just like other countries striving to assert their independence,”Bobi Wine.
At the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine, President Museveni appeared not to support any side as he said Uganda is not ready to interfere into other people’s wars. It is not clear whether this is a new development for the government since there have been foreign wars that Uganda has participated in as peacekeepers.
To date, Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) still offers countries like the Republic of Somalia security support through the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and in the Central African Republic.
In the recent development, the UPDF crossed the western boarder to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last year to fight against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) –a rebel group they accused of causing the terrorist attacks in Capital Kampala in the late 2021.
In the Ukraine-Russia war, President Museveni was, months later, in the middle of political attraction from both Russia and US. On the third leg of his tour of four African countries, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov flew to Uganda and met with President Museveni on July 26. And on August 3, US representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield arrived in Entebbe to “counter Russia’s misinformation” over the war in Ukraine.
This to many, left the world guessing what President Museveni’s plan is although in the past, the working relationship between Russia and Uganda have been flourishing. On the other hand, the US has since slapped sanctions onto Museveni’s top government officials over human rights violations in the country.
On Wednesday last week, Minister of Internal Affairs Gen Kahinda Otafiire, in a rejoinder appeared to assure Mr Kyagunyi that his open support for the Ukrainians is disjointed and does not sit well with some people who think Ukraine abandoned Ugandans in their country at the time they needed them most
“Brother, Bobi Wine, do you recall how Ukrainians treated African students at the beginning of this same conflict?” he asked
In 2020, when covid19 wreaked havoc across the world, some of the Uganda students in Kyiv were left abandoned at the airport while other reports indicated that some of them were racially abused during the evacuation mission.
But Bobi Wine hinged his travel on the history of the Soviet Union where Ukraine played a huge role in the mission and trained a number of soldiers from African states which helped in fighting appethaid policy in South Africa and other parts of the world.
