The recent arrest of Kizza Besigye in Kenya and his subsequent appearance in the Makindye-based court martial have rejuvenated the cold war between the two opposition groups.
Besigye was arrested for planning to topple a legitimately elected government in Uganda using guns. In a leaked audio conversation, Besigye is heard negotiating with foreigners about a wide range of weapons to use in destabilizing Uganda. In the same conversation, Besigye told his partners how Bobi Wine is mediocre, just playing comedy.
The NUP social media activists have been all over social media with a narrative that Beaigye’s arrest was a political deal by President Museveni and Besigye to make Besigye relevant and overshadow Bobi Wine in the forthcoming 2026 elections. They argued that Besigye has been President Museveni’s political backup ever since he formally joined the opposition.
It should be noted that Mathias Mpuuga, while appearing on a radio talk show earlier this year, confirmed that the NUP social media activists are actually bankrolled by Bobi Wine, and they work on his orders. It is therefore without doubt that the information shared by these people is from Bobi Wine.
In March 2019, Kizza Besigye was attacked by Bobi Wine’s supporters at Bulange after a CBS radio talk show. The attackers chanted Bobi Wine’s name and told Besigye to leave opposition politics for Bobi Wine.
What beats the minds of Ugandans is how Kizza Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, was endorsed by the same government they fight to get high-level international jobs at Oxfam and later the executive director of UNAIDS. It is well known that these are very big and sensitive diplomatic jobs that need government lobbying and endorsement, and so the president plays a big role in getting them. People like George William Kanyeihamba have been denied chances to get such serious internal jobs because of their relentless opposition to President Museveni and his government. How did Winnie succeed then? Maybe Bobi Wine and his social media activists could be right!
The Bobi Wine (NUP)-Kizza Besigye fights are not about to end given that we are approaching national elections. It should be noted that the two had planned to form the United Forces of Change to jointly fight for change, but their egos and selfish interests could not allow them. To Kizza Besigye, Bobi Wine snatched bread from him by taking away Buganda region in the 2021 elections, which was and is still the center of opposition.
Bobi Wine also understands that Kizza Besigye is an ideologically grounded politician because of his military background and definitely a brainy person compared to Bobi Wine’s ideological bankruptcy and ancient politics of tribalism and deception, so allowing him in a joint venture would make Bobi Wine insecure and lose the top opposition job.
In all this, it is clear that their feud will live forever, and their battles of interests will leave them divided as Museveni readies himself for swearing in come 2026. The two opposition figures are selfish, and their aim is to keep playing to the gallery for political relevance as they make their families rich using their few supporters as conduits.
