Friday, 23 January 2026
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Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine’s freedom message

Bobi Wine is alive. Uganda’s leading opposition figure is currently in hiding following last week’s elections, releasing videos to his millions of followers to confirm that he’s safe, for now. Security forces arrived at his home last week to arrest him. Later the son of President Yoweri Museveni publicly threatened to kill him ([link removed]) , boasting online that he has already murdered dozens of Wine’s supporters. This is the reality facing Uganda’s most prominent pro-democracy voice.

At Index, we are constantly in touch with courageous people around the world. Bobi Wine is among the greatest. When we interviewed him ([link removed]) in 2024, the singer-songwriter turned politician made one request of the international community: “do more to support all creatives in repressive regimes. By amplifying their voice and messages, you are playing your part in ensuring that eventual freedom is won.” Today, I want to do just that for Wine.

Born in 1982 in the slums of Kampala, Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, went on to become one of Uganda’s most successful musicians. As he told us ([link removed]) in 2019 he recognised the power of music, and so his songs, sung to the upbeat rhythms of ragga dancehall, took an increasingly political bent. In 2017, for example, Wine composed Freedom in response to Museveni’s proposed ending of age limits for the president.

All this riled Museveni. Wine was first arrested in 2017, the year he formally entered politics. Hundreds of his concerts were cancelled. Laws were passed to restrict artistic expression, colloquially referred to as “anti-Bobi Wine laws”. In 2018 Wine was effectively banned from performing live. Radio and TV stations were routinely harassed if they played his music, and so many didn’t. That same year Wine survived an assassination attempt, while his driver was killed. He was also arrested for the first time and was so badly beaten that he was temporarily unable to speak. Undeterred, he ran for president in 2021. Hundreds of his team were abducted on the campaign trail and his supporters were shot at. Wine was detained and tortured.

Despite all of this he continued to speak out and to create. He made more songs, sometimes using coded language to evade censorship, he held concerts at his own property. He once again threw his hat into the ring for the 2026 presidential elections.

We are a mere few days away from the 40th anniversary of Museveni's rule, and our East Africa contributing editor Danson Kahyana has reflected ([link removed]) on the dictator's legacy. Meanwhile, from an undisclosed location, Wine is releasing videos and doing interviews to challenge the regime’s narrative, which seeks to portray him as a criminal and to suggest that these elections were free and fair. He is also highlighting the crackdown against the opposition happening there, which extends far beyond just him. Bobi Wine is a remarkable man. His 2024 request – to amplify the voices of creatives – was simple. I’ll leave you therefore with a few lines from Freedom and a request to listen to it here ([link removed]) :

What was the purpose of the liberation?

When we can't have a peaceful transition?

What is the purpose of the constitution?

When the government disrespects the constitution?

Where is my freedom of expression?

When you charge me because of my expression?

Look what you doing to this nation

What are you teaching the future generation?

Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** The best of Index this week
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Five decades of Iranian protest ([link removed])

In the wake of nationwide demonstrations, we look at how protest has shaped the country ([link removed])

When the saviour becomes the monster: Museveni’s 40-year rule ([link removed])

As Yoweri Museveni celebrates 40 years in power, Danson Kahyana reflects on his dictatorship ([link removed])

The strange tale of a silenced female Russian rapper ([link removed])

Instasamka, aka. Darya Zoteeva, has been targeted both by state authorities and other rappers ([link removed])

How the far right has weaponised free speech ([link removed])

A professor says it is time to call out the charade and say what Trump and his ilk really want ([link removed])

Starlink offers a glimmer of hope in the internet darkness ([link removed])

Uganda is the latest country to shut down the internet as people goes to the polls ([link removed])

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** Join our solidarity campagin for Andrei Aliaksandrau
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On Tuesday 27 January 2026, Index’s colleague and friend, Andrei Aliaksandrau, will spend yet another birthday unjustly imprisoned in Belarus.

Show your solidarity with him and political prisoners around the world, record yourself reading a poem by Aliaksandrau and share it online on his birthday.

LEARN MORE ([link removed])


** In case you missed it
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Belarusian ham radio enthusiasts face death penalty

A group of Belarusian ham radio enthusiasts ([link removed]) has been arrested on accusations of spying, with some facing the death penalty.

On 15 January, an announcement was made on state television that a “large network of radio spies” had been “eliminated”, with some accused of treason and espionage. Radio enthusiasts believe the charges relate to conversations between security forces that were published, having taken place using broadcasts that could be listened to by any amateur.


Dagestan court hands journalist five-year sentence for Instagram posts

A court in Dagestan ([link removed]) has sentenced Svetlana Anokhina, a prominent women’s rights activist and editor-in-chief of Daptar, a Dagestani platform for women, to five years in prison in absentia this week on charges of discrediting the Russian armed forces.

The case against her began in 2023, based on a pair of Instagram posts she made in 2022 concerning the invasion of Ukraine. She fled Russia in 2021 after police raided a women’s shelter run by Marem, an NGO she started in 2020.

Shabana Mahmood’s praises plans for an omnipotent state

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood detailed her praise for Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon in an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Telegraph reported this week ([link removed]) . Mahmood detailed her vision for the country’s justice system, telling Blair she wanted “to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times.”

As Home Secretary ([link removed]) , Mahmood has been at the forefront of plans to roll out live facial recognition technology across the country, a technology that currently has only seen a limited rollout.


** Flashback
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Australia’s disproportionate response to online harms ([link removed])

by Index on Censorship ([link removed])

This week, the conversation around banning social media for under-16s in the UK has rapidly developed. The UK government announced it will consider the ban in a new consultation ([link removed]) and the House of Lords backed ([link removed]) the ban passing it 261 votes to 150. This follows a similar ban in Australia last month.

While we acknowledge that action must be taken to protect young people from online harm, Index on Censorship believes that banning the under-16s from many social media spaces actually curtails free expression and threatens privacy. Read more here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Uganda, the USA and Belarus has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Bobi Wine) FIORANI FABIO/Alamy; (Apps on a phone) Jason Howie/Flickr

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