Africa-Press – Uganda. A 45-year-old Ugandan fashion designer who was behind the deceased South African musician, Lucky Dube’s outfit when he performed in the East African nation in 2003 has been detained for allegedly designing Bobi Wine’s red attire.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Mr Patrick Onyango said Mr Latif Madoi was taken into their custody on Monday alongside four others on charges of possession of government stores. They are currently detained at Kasangati police station, Wakiso District.
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The other suspects as Joseph Afundra, 37, Rogers Kalyesubula, Shaban Taala, 27, all residents of Jokolera village, and Moses Migadde, 32, a resident of Matugga in Wakiso District in central Uganda.
The four are believed to be supporters of Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, 42, a former presidential contender who lost the 2021 election to Mr Yoweri Museveni, 79.
Mr Onyango said their arrest followed information that some people were putting on security-like attires with ranks and titles yet this was a crime, according to the country’s armed forces laws.
Supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party which Mr Kyagulanyi leads have been donning red berets and red attires since 2017 when Mr Kyagulanyi contested and won as Kyadondo East MP through a by-election.
In 2019, police and the army outlawed the attire and the berets on grounds that it’s supposed to be won by only members of the armed forces.
This was after Mr Kyagulanyi, a pop star turned politician announced he was running for president against longtime leader Museveni in the 2021 presidential election.
Mr Kyagulanyi had made the red beret his signature, calling it a “symbol of resistance”.
“They were personating security officers. In particular police and the UPDF in areas of Kamwokya and Nakawa in Kampala. The said attires were from NUP offices in Kamwokya,” Mr Onyango said following Madoi’s arrest.
According to him, the police intelligence team was led to Madoi’s LA Fashions and Skill Development School located in Jokolera village, Watubba Ward in Kasangati Town Council where they recovered several items.
So MPs are free to wear military fatigues but red berets are haram?
Other items, according to Mr Onyango, included three electric sewing machines, one army green raincoat, two charts bearing Latif military academy barracks, five army green bags, two army green headdresses, and one pedal tailoring machine, among others.
This publication was not able to independently verify this account from the police.
However, this reporter has learned that Madoi and his co-accused will likely be arraigned before Nabweru Chief Magistrate’s Court tomorrow (May 17).
Commenting on the arrests, Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu who leads Uganda’s biggest opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP) said the regime led by President Museveni, 79, who has been in power since 1986 when he shot his way to State House through a five-year guerilla warfare, is cracking down on freedom of expression through fashion.
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“We will defy any legal attacks on our rights and freedoms to freely express ourselves through fashion. I publicly wear the overall that he (Madoi) made for me, why should he be in jail for making it?” Mr Kyagulanyi wondered.
On May 13 when police and army officers searched NUP offices in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb and shops around Uganda’s capital, Mr Evans Bukenya, the caretaker of NUP offices was arrested.
Madoi’s passion for fashion started way back when he was still a student. Apart from designing Lucky Dube, he has over the years gone on to design for some of the biggest global names in the music industry
Artistes like Morgan Heritage, Busy Signal, Anthony B, Jose Chameleone nd Bobi Wine, among others have been some of his biggest clients.
Madoi is an award-winning fashionista of the Bronze Thread Award in Niame, Niger, in 2007. He’s currently the only Ugandan holder of this prestigious continental award.
After several weeks of incommunicado detention and torture by the military, our comrades Masaba Faustine and Mumbya Hussein were yesterday sneaked into a court in Njeru town and charged in the absence of their lawyers and family. Apparently, these comrades – who did not know each… pic.twitter.com/xrVikc3pvF
Yesterday, among other places, the military and police raided Latif Fashion School in Kawanda and arrested its founder, the award winning designer Latif Madoi and four students identified as Roger, Jose (Mwavu takwana), Shaban and another unknown student.
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