The Minister of Security, General Elly Tumwine has revealed that Police blocking music shows of musician turned politician, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine is part of his (Bobi Wine) occupational hazards as a musician.
He advised him to stop lamenting.
“Ssentamu will be my witness, when he came to this Parliament, as a musician, I had a discussion with him in the lobby and I asked him a question, how will you balance the music and the politics?“ Tumwine said.
He made the remarks Tuesday during the plenary sitting while responding to concerns raised by Kyadondo East MP, Kyagulanyi, who had asked Parliament to help him restraint Police’s habit of unnecessarily stopping his music shows.
“Just like people who are lawyers, pastoralists, I am also a musician where my family survives through that way, I employ hundreds of Ugandans. Since last year, Uganda Police has made it a habit to sabotage my music concerts,” Bobi Wine said.
However, Tumwine’s response was meant with angry reactions from Opposition MPs.
Kilak South County MP, Gilbert Olanya wondered why the ban has to touch only Bobi yet the law doesn’t require MPs to resign from their professions.
“Almost all MPs have their professions; we have lawyers in this August House who are practicing including me; I am teaching including UPDF soldiers like Tumwine. Is the Minister in order to insinuate that Bobi Wine cannot balance his profession while working as MP yet all of us are practicing our professions?” an angry Olanya asked.
The Speaker Rebecca Kadaga ruled Tumwine out of order, saying: “The form we signed when we were being nominated doesn’t say that if you are dancer, stop dancing, if you are a teacher, stop teaching. Address violation to his rights. Is the state stopping him from doing his work? That is what we want to hear.”
Tumwine shot back stating, “I hadn’t finished my story, I hadn’t concluded my sentence. I will say these are occupational hazards.”
The general’s statement infuriated Kadaga, who lashed out at him for reducing the matter of violation of Bobi Wine’s human rights to a joking subject.
“I think the Minister thinks this is a joke. I want to ask the Prime Minister if the state doesn’t allow Kyagulanyi to do his job,” Kadaga said.
Bobi Wine revealed that since October last year, five of his concerts have been cancelled and in October 2018, another concert meant to take place in Namboole was halted without justification from Uganda Police and that the ban has stretched to his spiritual life where he isn’t allowed to go to church.
Bobi’s complaint follow last weekend’s scuffle in Jinja where Police are said to have been searching across the town for his team and went further to block most roads in search for the Legislator.
He vowed not to show his face before the security operatives saying the Arua memories are still fresh his mind and is aware of what the security team is capable of doing when it comes to torturing civilians.
