Africa-Press – Uganda. Singer and former Sembabule District Woman Member of Parliament aspirant Nina Roz Kankunda has dismissed recent statements by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Oryem Okello that opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, is engaging in “political drama.”
In a strongly worded and emotionally charged statement issued on her official X (formerly Twitter) account on Wednesday, Nina Roz defended the two-time presidential candidate’s position and criticised remarks she said downplay the circumstances surrounding his situation.
“It’s always called ‘political drama’ when the truth is uncomfortable. When a leader’s home is surrounded, roads are blocked, and even family members face intimidation, that’s not theatre—that’s the lived reality many Ugandans understand too well,” she wrote.
Nina Roz’s remarks come amid an intensifying political debate following Bobi Wine’s announcement that he would temporarily leave Uganda after spending more than eight weeks operating from undisclosed locations.
According to Bobi Wine, his decision to travel abroad is aimed at expanding international engagement on governance concerns and the aftermath of the January 15, 2026 presidential election.
In an announcement shared on Saturday, he said he would use the trip to meet members of the Ugandan diaspora and other international stakeholders before returning to continue what he described as the “push for freedom and democracy.”
During his absence, he appointed NUP Vice President for Western Uganda, Lina Zedriga Waru, as acting party president.
Responding to the development, Oryem dismissed Kyagulanyi’s departure as a calculated move intended to attract sympathy from Western audiences. In a telephone interview on Tuesday, he described the opposition leader as an actor seeking “sympathies from the gullible West.”
“What the international community and the general public should see in Bobi Wine is that he is not really a politician—he is an actor. He thinks politics is a stage where he can act, and the star of the movie in the end survives and never dies,” Oryem said.
He further argued that there was “absolutely no substantive reason” for Bobi Wine to leave Uganda, insisting that the move was part of a broader strategy to gain international sympathy and potentially secure political leverage through external pressure.
“If you want to become President, you should win the elections with more than 50+1 percent of the total vote, not through foreign sympathies,” he added, warning against what he described as “neo-colonial” influence.
Nina Roz, however, pushed back strongly against the minister’s assertions, questioning both the framing and tone of his remarks.
“To dismiss it as sympathy-seeking raises a serious question—are you mentally ok, or simply choosing to ignore what’s right in front of you? Robert Kyagulanyi doesn’t need to manufacture sympathy, the situation speaks for itself. Accountability cannot be brushed off as drama forever,” she wrote.
Bobi Wine, who had been in hiding since shortly after the polls, has said he was evading security operatives amid what he described as a military siege around his residence.
Since the election, he has rejected the results, calling them “fake” and accusing the Electoral Commission of manipulation, though no substantiated evidence has been publicly presented to support the claims.
