Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi has been named by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the 2019’s Top 100 Global Thinkers under 40 years.
The musician and politician widely by his stage name, Bobi Wine now joins veteran journalist cum businessman, Andrew Mwenda who was also named on the prestigious list in 2010.
FP justified Bobi Wine’s presence on this year’s list with the Legislator’s Ghetto-Parliament story and continued stance against the Ugandan government that got him arrested and tortured him last year in Arua, events that have made the singing politician a global brand.
“Bobi Wine has rallied Uganda’s youth by arguing against a proposed social media tax and fighting for the dignity of the poor. Ugandan soldiers attempted to silence Wine in August 2018, first beating him brutally and then bringing him to trial for treason in a military court, although he is a civilian. Wine recovered, picked up attention in the international media, and his “people power” campaign continues, undeterred,” a write up accompanying his nomination reads.
Although the full list, according to FP, will be out on January 22, Bobi Wine was recently named as Africa News‘ Personality of the Year continues to shake trees on the global political scene. He was invited to the British House of Commons – a trip he didn’t make – to discuss the deteriorating state of democracy and rule of law in Uganda.
Others prominent personalities named on the list are Christine Largade, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
In 2010, Mwenda, who was a renowned Museveni critic made it to the list for his fight for freedom of expression in Uganda.
Like Bobi Wine, Mwenda had been jailed earlier for casting the President’s name in a bad light when he alleged on his political talk show, Andrew Mwenda Live, that Museveni had a hand in the plane crash that killed then visiting South Sudanese President, John Garang.
Wine says that his presence on the list is a testimony that he is not championing a wrong cause, adding that he is now encouraged to carry on.
“Such recognition by the world only reaffirms to us that ours is not a wrong cause. I am humbled that the small things we do for our country & our people are appreciated by the world,” the legislator said in a tweet.