Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine, who has emerged as the most formidable opponent of veteran President Yoweri Museveni, has been shot in the leg by security agents in a northern suburb of the capital, Kampala, his party said.

Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, finished runner-up in the 2021 presidential election behind Museveni, who has ruled the East African country for nearly 40 years.

Bobi Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform, said in a post on the X platform on Tuesday that “Security operatives have made an attempt [on his life].”

They added: “He was shot in the leg and seriously injured.”

The police said officers had attempted to block Bobi Wine and his team from marching down a road, resulting in an altercation in which he was injured. An investigation would be conducted to clarify the facts, the police said in a statement on X.

“Police officers on site claim he stumbled while getting into his vehicle, causing the injury, whereas Hon. Kyagulanyi and his team assert that he was shot,” the police said.

Incident prompts condemnation

A video shared widely on social media showed NUP party officials helping Bobi Wine hobble out of the Najeem Medical Centre in the Bulindo neighbourhood. He appeared to have a bleeding wound on the shin of his left leg and was grimacing in pain.

“We condemn this cowardly action; yet another attempt on his life. The continuing violence meted out on those opposed to the Museveni regime must be condemned by all people of good conscience,” NUP party Secretary-General David Lewis Rubongoya wrote on X.

Museveni’s government has been accused by opponents and human rights activists of stifling the opposition, something Museveni denies.

A US State Department spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday that Washington was “concerned that violence against opposition voices means the democratic space continues to shrink in Uganda”.

Bobi Wine has amassed huge support among the youth in Uganda, a nation of 46 million people, with many wooed initially by his rags-to-riches story as a pop star from the ghetto, and in recent years by his bold criticism of Museveni’s government.