Armed police on Wednesday “besieged” the campaign headquarters of Bobi Wine, a pop star and politician who is seeking Uganda’s presidency in elections set for 2021, an opposition figure said.
Police confiscated items such as security cameras and supplies of red berets that are symbols of Wine’s popular campaign, David Lewis Rubongoya, an official with Wine’s party who is at the scene in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, told The Associated Press.
“They have taken away everything,” he said.
Wine, a legislator whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was meeting with other leaders of his National Unity Platform party when the police swooped in and cordoned off the area, he said.
Wine and other party officials have not been arrested, he said. But in a Twitter post Wine reported that “comrades had been injured” after police “raided” his headquarters and seized documents and other items.
A police spokesman did not immediately respond to questions, but authorities frequently accuse Wine and others in the opposition of disobeying orders aimed at protecting public peace.
Wine, who has been arrested many times in recent years, has captured the imagination of many Ugandans with his persistent calls for President Yoweri Museveni to retire.