The leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, together with his wife and children, are heading out for a Christmas vacation in Dubai starting from December 6, 2024.
According to sources inside the NUP camp, Bobi Wine will take one day off his vacation and interact with party members from all seven states of the United Arab Emirates, then resume his merrymaking with his family till early next year.
However, his planned trip has sparked distress, especially among the ‘foot soldiers’ who are claiming that money from the party coffers, which would have been used to cater for the families of deceased and jailed NUP supporters, is being used to fund Bobi Wine’s luxurious vacations.
“What hurts most is that the children of these people have since dropped out of school, and those in jail see no hope of coming out because Bobi Wine and team misused the money and instead deployed intern lawyers,” Kato Adam, one of the disgruntled foot soldiers, said.
More so, his vacation comes at a time when the party is supposedly mourning its supporters who were killed in the November 2020 riots.
This has left many NUP supporters and leaders wondering why the party president would leave his supporters mourning and instead use their money in merry-making activities with his family, with some asserting that Bobi Wine is a mere masquerader using the struggle to make money and enrich his family.
“It is emotional insensitivity of the highest order for Bobi Wine to leave his supporters grieving and go for feel-good partying and at the same time rob them of their funds to cater for his family,” Zahara Nalubyayi, an NUP Councilor, said.
Bobi Wine has previously faced accusations regarding the mismanagement of party funds. In early 2023, reports emerged claiming that funds intended for grassroots mobilization were misappropriated for personal use, which led to significant internal conflict within the party.
Furthermore, in 2022, several members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) expressed concerns about the misuse of party funds when Bobi Wine took his entire family on a two-week vacation to the Seychelles Islands.
As a result, party supporters are questioning how someone who purports to advocate for the oppressed can justify taking luxurious vacations while neglecting the needs of the people he claims to represent.
