Right from his early days life, Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi’s ascension to greatness in life has always been a miraculous paradox for any close observer to explain.
Orphaned at a tender age, and having to tussle it out under the harshest of environments in the Ghettos of Kamwokya, the now celebrated opposition chief was certainly going to have a mountain of challenges to make it in life.
All those withstanding however, the self baptized ghetto president made it by attaining a university degree amidst adversity, a privilege only reserved for a few from the well-to-do families from majorly the country’s first class.
In his music career, the celebrated pop star to date stands with his head high as one of the greatest of all time, a feat that has with no doubt influenced his current raise in the political ladders.
With his eyes now focused on the Presidency, it’s not been all roses for him and his close family members who have had to go through a lot in the short time their loved one has basked in the coveted limelight.
During an interview with this news website, Mr Eddy Ssentamu alias Eddy Yawe – the celebrated band music icon intimated to us about the untold challenges they have had to endure as a family ever since his brother opted to serve his life as a gift to Ugandans in a bid to effect self political redemption from the current administration.
According to Yawe, being a brother to the opposition bigwig Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu is the biggest “crime” for which he has been unfairly judged and treated both by the state and a section of the public.
Despite him being in politics for considerably longer period than the famous singer come politician, Ugandans opposed to his People Power pressure group have crucified him, along with his elder brother Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu for his Parliamentary ambitions despite the fact that they have been in active politics long before Bobi Wine.
” I look at people branding me a self seeker and wonder. They know I have been in politics long before Kyagulanyi joined, then why say that I am raiding on his fame to become a member of Parliament! And some have even asked that we shouldn’t even participate in politics as if being Bobi Wine’s brothers is a crime,” he said.
He contends that their family has of late become a target for the hostile forces to propagate seeds of divisionism, a thing Yawe says is intended to cause confusion, isolate Bobi Wine and make him disappointed and divert from the wider struggle. He described the recent media reports linking him to Museveni’s “activists for sale” project as part of the wider propaganda mechanism aimed at putting a wedge between the People Power Principal – Bobi Wine and his family so as to kill morale among the forces of change.
Using the same negative propaganda tool of demonizing Wine’s brothers and relatives, Yawe said he is not the only one who has been targeted by the negative forces. According to him, Bobi Wine’s other younger brother Mickie Wine was badly battered and his spirit shattered when he made his intentions to run for a political office public. The critics reasoned that it was not proper for members of the same family to hold political offices at the same time, a narrative he says is selectively advanced to fight people power.
He goes on to wonder why it’s okay when Museveni is the President, his wife a minister, his in-laws Ministers, his son a Senior army officer and his whole clan in government and yet it’s not even okay for brothers to contest in an election!
Talking about his multi billion house that has been the talk of town of late, the Kira Municipality MP aspirant laughed off haters who said Museveni had paid for it. He told Watchdog that he started building the said mansion long before Museveni could have even thought his brother could ever make him tremble the way he does today. Besides, he says the house is too expensive for even Museveni to afford since never in life has he ever bought or built a house like his for any of the opposition politicians he has been buying.
” That house has been there for over ten years. I doubt if Museveni could even afford paying for it’s construction after all for whom has he ever built a house like that. He can only afford cheap ones with their focus on subsistence survival and not me, ” Yawe explained.
On the same matter, he said that the fact that all his brothers have houses causing people to whisper in town is a testimony that they come from hardworking roots. He further sarcastically encouraged critics to be strong because there is still a lot of rewards from their hard work they are yet to see. He says he is a proud owner of some real estate investments both within Uganda and abroad, something that should make haters know he can still have more even without a hand from the state.
Despite the fact that there have efforts to disintegrate their family through well orchestrated state propaganda and threats, they have been able to devise means of staying focused and mitigating any possible damage. He says there is constant need to convene and and have a round table conversation and also offer emotional counselling for members broken by the the oppression from the state.
He however maintains that despite the challenges, they are as a family thankful for the duty given to them to support Bobi Wine in his endeavors, a role he says is worthy the pain they are going through.
He also called upon Ugandans to stay focused, adding that it’s just natural that some fighters will knock themselves off the chariot of change combatants but that should never make anyone lose direction.
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