The Bad Man From Kamwokya

For a traumatized population that is frequently gaslighted with state propaganda, the 2023 documentary—Bobi Wine: The People’s President—tugs at something that many Ugandans have tried to kill inside of them.

In 2017, Ugandan co-directors, Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, set out to document the cultural influence of Bobi Wine as he transitioned from a captivating, conscientious reggae star to a politician and activist. The story caught their attention in 2017 when 35-year-old Robert Kyagulani Ssentamu (now popularly known as ‘Bobi Wine’) bounced into Uganda’s parliament as the chosen representative of Kyaddondo East, Kamokya. Bobi Wine ran on an independent ticket separate from the long-reigning National Resistance Movement and other popular opposition parties like the Forum for Democratic Change and the Democratic Party. It was the unshakeable confidence in his walk that broke all polite society protocol because it frankly announced that the walker did not seek nor need external validation to know that he belonged on that floor. It was his youth, his freshness on a floor that had grown bloated and familiar with the way things were. It promised endurance and threatened the perceived balance necessary to oversee the bleak reality of Uganda. A fish out of water story; the easier-known Bad Man from Kamwokya or Ka Bobi stole hearts and bruised egos by meeting the previously impossible high hopes of those existing outside of political favour, and then went on to exceed them...

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