World renowned musicians push for Bobi Wine release

International artistes have signed a petition urging the Ugandan government to release Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine.

Chris Martin of the British rock band, Coldplay, Damon Albarn of the British rock band, Blur and award-winning Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo are among those pushing for his release.

“We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the arrest, imprisonment and vicious, life-threatening physical attack by Ugandan government forces on popular Ugandan singer and Member of Parliament, the Honourable Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a.k.a Bobi Wine,” the letter reads in part.

“We pledge to remain vigilant about his ongoing detention and to use our voices and networks at the local, regional and international levels to raise awareness about his case, to press for his immediate and unconditional release,” it adds.

According to the BBC, Rikki Stein who was once the manager for Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti, is behind the petition.

He is “a fearless critic of Nigeria’s military regimes during his lifetime,” the BBC said.

#FreeBobiWine ✊ pic.twitter.com/hgx5O5DjVW

— SAUTI SOL (@sautisol) August 19, 2018

In Kenya, Sauti Sol also joined the online campaign for Bobi Wine through the hashtag #FreeBobiWine.

The Kenyan band has a following of 1million people on Facebook and 635,000 followers on Twitter.

On Thursday morning, Kenyans also took to the streets to protest the detention of Bobi Wine.

Bobi Wine was arrested ten days ago together with 33 others and charged with treason.

The charges were later reduced to illegal possession of firearms.

On Thursday, the military court in Uganda dropped the charges and released Bobi Wine albeit for a short while.

He would later be rearrested outside and taken to the Gulu Magistrate’s Court where he was again charged with treason.