National Unity Platform party president Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert alias Bobi Wine on Sunday defended his position on the World Bank loan cuts, as he maintains that the West is hypocritical while prioritizing LGBTQ rights as more pertinent than other gross rights abuses on the African continent.
Responding to what her termed as the ‘hard questions’ set by renown gay rights activist and hardcore NUP supporter Hillary Taylor Sseguya famed for his Twitter moniker ‘Justice Hunter’, Mr. Wine said he finds it hypocritical for the West to be so vocal on the LGBTQ community rights at the expense of other human rights abuses.
Bobi said, “We are questioning the selective observation of human rights in Africa. In 2009, Museveni massacred people in Kayunga during the protests when he blocked the Kabaka from accessing his territory, we didn’t see sanctions. In 2014, Museveni passed the anti-gay Bill part one and that’s when sanctions were slapped on Uganda to the extent that Museveni using his boys Fox Odoi and Andrew Mwenda repealed that law through court,” Bobi said. “For me and so many Ugandans, we know that Museveni is using that Bill to play politics. Every time he has lost popularity amongst the people who are blindly religious. He uses that law to endear himself in the population. Most of us know he doesn’t do this in good faith. We have so many problems that need to be legislated on in Uganda but he ignores them and gives that importance.
In 2016, two years after the first attempt of the anti-gay bill, Museveni using Elwelu massacred hundreds of people in Kasese. Women and children stripped naked and tied by their backs and shot in the head dead. We called for sanctions but none were imposed on Museveni at the time. Among the Kasese victims we don’t know if some were gay or not but they were human beings,” he explained.
Bobi furthermore added that in November 2020 in two days, dozens of Ugandans were killed during the demonstrations in Kampala and still no Western sanctions came through.
“In two days, November 18th and 19th 2020, the state killed dozens of people. More than 150 people were killed on camera. It was showed on BBC, CNN and many international media covered it. We called for sanctions because that was gross violation of human rights. We want to believe that a right to life is a fundamental human right. We called for sanctions but nothing happened apart from a few statements that were issued. In 2021 January elections, Museveni blatantly rigged the elections. He blocked EU and US observers. Even the US department of state issued a statement disregarding the Ugandan elections but guess what, a few months later billions were splashed into the Ugandan regime. We were awed and said what values bring us together with the international community,” he exclaimed. Wine added, “And now in 2023, Museveni bringa back the anti-homosexuality Bill which he uses for politics when he doesn’t have what to say to Ugandans and this is when the international community reacts. All we are saying is that all human rights matter.”
On reshuffling Mpuuga, Bobi rallied disgruntled Hillary Taylor to keep calm and allow the party to perform its duties.
At the #NUPDC2023 convention, a small group of delegates repeatedly heckled me to lose my train of thought while questioning President @HEBobiwine.
I’m grateful to Bobi Wine, NUP Spokesperson @JoelSsenyonyi, Prof @allimadi, and other comrades for defending my freedom to speak.… pic.twitter.com/FbNZmJfafS
— Justice Hunter 🇺🇬🇺🇸 (@HillaryTaylorVI) August 13, 2023
