Bobi Wine’s Health – Who Is Telling the Truth

Bobi Wine beat candidates from the main political parties in last year’s

by-election to become an MP

They travelled in the same van to Makindye Military Police barracks to see the jailed Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine but on return, they had a different narrative of what they saw.

On August 15, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga set up a six-man committee comprising MPs Doreen Amule (Amolatar Woman), Andrew Aja Baryayanga (Kabale Municipality), Medard Lubega Sseggona (Busiro East), Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West), Jacob Oboth-Oboth (West Budama South) and Jovah Kamateeka (Mitooma Woman).

The committee was assigned to follow up on the brutal arrest of MPs Francs Zaake (Mityana Municipality), Paul Mwiru (Jinja Municipality East), Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality), Arua Municipality MP-elect Kassiano Wadri and former Makindye East MP Michael Mabikke. They were arrested alongside Bobi Wine and 30 others on August 13 in Arua.

The committee was set up after pictures of a badly beaten Zaake were posted on social media. The semi-comatose Zaake had been dumped at an unknown health facility.

A government statement to parliament made no mention of Zaake. He was also missing on the charge sheet before the military court martial where Bobi Wine was arraigned, as well as on the charge sheet before Gulu Chief Magistrate Francis Matenga Dawa in which the other MPs and 30 others were charged with treason.

He was a day later found dumped at Rubaga hospital near Kampala in critical condition. The Observer has understood that as the group travelled up north on a hunt for their colleagues, Amule who was designated by Kadaga as the team leader by virtue of her position as chairperson of Parliament’s committee on Defence and Internal Affairs, the Amolatar Woman MP kept in constant communication with Gen Jeje Odong, the Minister for Internal Affairs.

Her behaviour reportedly increasingly became suspicious to her colleagues when they got inside Gulu army barracks.

“She somehow forgot that we had been sent by Parliament not Odong to whom she appeared to be reporting and receiving instructions,” an MP who did not want to be named said.

On Sunday, August 19, Amule, without alerting other members of the committee members, travelled to Makindye with ruling party MP Peter Ogwang (Usuk), Ibrahim Kasozi (Makindye East) and Arinaitwe Rwakajara (Workers), plus regime-leaning Anita Among (Bukedea Woman). The trip was facilitated by army spokesman, Brig Richard Karemire.

Karemire picked this batch of MPs from Parliament and upon returning, they sent out messages to the effect that they had interacted with Bobi Wine, who they claimed was out of danger.

“Contrary to social media alarming reports that Hon Kyagulanyi is in dire state, we found him in a better state than what is painted on social media. Hon Kyagulanyi hugged and smiled at us, talked freely with us. He commended the UPDF doctors for taking good care of him medically,” Ogwang posted on his facebook page.

Ogwang later told The Observer that, “He [Bobi] is out of danger, he complained of some pain in his left hip and a problem with his kidney.”

Amule also separately claimed all was well with Kyagulanyi whom she said was all praises for the UPDF doctors’ professionalism.

Their narrative was, however, contradicted by Kasozi who told journalists that Kyagulanyi was in very bad shape and needed urgent medical attention owing to a fear that his kidney was damaged by the soldiers who tortured him in Arua.

Kasozi also said that Kyagulanyi had asked why the military was not allowing him to see his personal doctor.

The doctor first went to Makindye last Friday, August 17, but was turned away as Bobi Wine’s wife, Barbie), brother Eddie Yawe and lawyers were allowed in to see him. He was eventually let in on Monday after Kasozi diluted claims by his colleagues with whom they had visited Kyagulanyi the previous day.

Karemire also returned to Parliament to pick members of the ad-hoc committee to go and visit the musician-cum-politician.

Other MPs like Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga), Barnabas Tinkasiimire (Buyaga West) and Johnson Muyanja Ssenyonga (Mukono South) who had been invited to accompany the committee were turned away after Karemire said that the van he had come with was only enough for members of the ad-hoc committee.

“I was dressed in a red overall (symbol of the opposition) and they asked me to remove it because I was going to travel with them but suddenly, they said, we can’t be allowed to go. What is it that they are hiding? If Bobi Wine is fine just like President Museveni wants us to believe, why are they keeping him away from people?” Tinkasiimire wondered.

Ssekikubo on the other hand wondered why the committee was using a van provided by the army contrary to parliamentary rules.

“What credible report are they going to write when they are travelling in a UPDF car? Usually when we are going for field trips, we use the official parliament car to avoid bias,” Ssekikubo said.

True to his fears, when the MPs returned, some were already questioning their team leader, Amule’s integrity.

The group is understood to have disagreed with the army officers at Makindye. Amule went into a one-on-one chat with Karemire, and, when they got back to Parliament, they were painting two distinctive pictures of Bobi Wine’s current state.

While Amule told this writer that Kyagulanyi was “steadily progressing positively” other group members said he was doing quite badly.

“He complains of pain in the left leg but he has no problem. I have talked to his doctor and he said that the kidney has no problem, even the genitals he [Kyagulanyi] was complaining about, the doctor said they will still function,” Amule said.

Some committee members called Amule a liar whom they accused of having a different agenda she is pursuing. But the Amolatar Woman MP said that she was stating what she had seen and told at Makindye.

Ssewanyana said that there was a fear that Kyagulanyi would lose his manhood because his genitals were badly squeezed by the presidential guard soldiers who badly beat him up during the arrest.

His genitals were allegedly squeezed in the process of transferring him from Pacific hotel in Arua to an army detention facility at Arua airfield.

“He was held with his head down; the arms were handcuffed and the legs chained. The soldiers then started torturing him with one squeezing the genitals, others stumping on him with army boots while others pinched the ears,” Sseggona said.

Kyagulanyi reportedly got some relief after he was transferred to Gulu barracks where he was put in a house formerly occupied by a senior army officer.

At Makindye, according to Karemire, Kyagulanyi is not being kept in an ordinary cell but in a self-contained house befitting an MP.

While the MPs want the army leadership to allow Kyagulanyi to receive specialised medical attention out of the country, Karemire said that will only happen upon the recommendation of UPDF doctors.

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Source: The Observer

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