The minister of information and ICT, Frank Tumwebaze has dismissed claims from political commentators and the general public, that Kyadondo East legislator Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine’s arrest has shaken the government.
Speaking to NBS TV exclusively, Tumwebaze said Ugandans are not as gullible as they are thought to be, they read situations and understand.
Using the example of Besigye’s arrest in 2006 following a five-year stint in exile in South Africa, Tumwebaze said that people then said the government was going to collapse under Besigye pressure, alas, it was never to be.
After the 2001 Presidential elections in which Besigye alleged that Museveni snatched victory, the FDC strongman was placed under house arrest but would later beat security on November 3 the same year and escape to South Africa.
He returned to Uganda on October 25, 2005 and was arrested on charges of treason. A month later, Besigye was granted bail by High Court judge Vincent Lugayizi, but armed men stormed court and seized him. It took international and internal pressure to release Besigye who had by the time been nominated for 2006 presidential elections while in jail.
“This is not the first time, they have always said it, when Besigye was arrested in 2006 they said the NRM was gone,” Tumwebaze said.
“When we had the scuffle in parliament, they said we shall lose LC polls hands down and we were scared to conduct elections. Ugandans aren’t gullible as people think, they understand. I have seen people say Zaake (Francis) is dying, the following day you see pictures he is laughing. Today someone is walking, then in the court martial he is limping. People know that these are schemes of propaganda,” he added.
Ever since the arrest and detention of Bobi Wine, Ugandans in Kampala, Jinja and his birth home in Gomba have protested while the rest took to social media to demand his release through a hashtag.
On the other hand, Ugandans in UK, Kenya, South Africa have protested Bobi Wine’s arrest and torture.
