By Kabuye Ronald
Former Presidential candidate and National Unity Platform NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has claimed that nine police officers who were assigned to his security detail during the election campaign have been dismissed from the Uganda Police Force and charged with neglect of duty.
In a statement released on thursday, via his X handle, Bobi Wine said the officers were on Wednesday paraded before a police disciplinary court and dismissed “with disgrace.” According to him, authorities accuse the officers of helping him escape from his home during a period when security forces had surrounded the premises.
Wine dismissed the accusation as “crazy,” arguing that the officers in question had already been withdrawn from duty before the incident occurred.
He said the officers were pulled from his residence on January 15, the day of the general election. Wine added that when security forces later raided his home on January 16, the officers were no longer stationed there.
“The regime claims they assisted me in escaping from my own home,” Wine said in the statement. “But by the time I left when the military raided, they were no longer on duty.”
Wine further alleged that the officers are being punished because authorities were embarrassed after failing to locate him for nearly two months following the election period.
He said two of the officers, including one identified as Kigenyi, were reportedly taken back into detention at a police station at the Railway Grounds and are still undergoing interrogation.
Wine also criticized the government of Yoweri Museveni, claiming state institutions are being pressured to act illegally to protect the regime.
“These officers were deployed to protect me, not to spy on me,” he said, adding that many civil servants face repercussions for choosing to act professionally.
Wine concluded by expressing solidarity with the dismissed officers, saying they were among many Ugandans who have “tasted the wrath of a desperate regime.”
Authorities from the Uganda Police Force had not immediately responded publicly to the claims at the time of publication.
