Thread by @Opiaiya

Attended a press conference yesterday (online) given by @HEBobiwine and his wife Barbie Kyagulani. It lasted nearly an hour and was also addressed by his US based lawyer Mr. Bruce Afran. I will tweet a thread of his views on what happens next soon. He is under house arrest.

The only question that I asked was about his legal representation, considering that he was a candidate in a presidential election which has not concluded and he is also afraid for his safety and that of his wife. Barbie answered that their local lawyers have been denied access.

So here is the thread. The press conference was arranged by @HEBobiwine's external team. The line he was using was weak. At one point when it went off his lawyer was convinced that the last link had been severed with Bobi Wine. But he came back on.

Bobi Wine sounded tired but firm. He lay out two problems with the outcome of the election. One is that he rejected the result. The second was that he was struggling with making his case, unable to file a complaint in court or coordinate the gathering of evidence b'coz of (contd)

his detention, and the shutting down of the internet. His conditions at the blockade of his home also sounded grim. He witnessed his wife being manhandled by soldiers he said refused to speak to him or answer his questions. Barbie later narrated the full scale of their condition

He said his attempts to leave the compound were obstructed. When Barbie tried, to find vegetables in the garden was when she was reportedly assaulted. She also tried to go to a local pharmacy but this too was blocked.

In his account of the election, Bobi Wine repeated some of what is now public information. The mass detention of NUP members, the deaths of close friends he said affected him personally. He mentioned the continued detention of his close friends like Eddie Mutwe, his DJ Selector G

And Nubian Lee (music collaborator) " So many people are paying the price for freedom" he said, since he decided to run. He also mentioned Gordon Abacha and claimed NUP agents were being hunted down countrywide with many on the run or in hiding. He mentioned the assault of (Cont

Hon Zaake. On what happens next " These challenges not withstanding, we managed to get a resounding win. We regret the announcement ( insert of Museveni's victory)). It was fraudulent and does not represent the result of the election"

At one point another journalist asked if he had evidence of the "electoral fraud". He answered that while work was on-going i compiling the evidence, NUP was in possession of evidence including video evidence of various electoral malpractices ( contd)

Bobi Wine said he planned to take a path that was legal and peaceful ( non-violent) to seek reddress. " What we are doing is moral, and what is right, we are doing it legally and in a non-violent way" he said adding that all depends on his freedom and that of others.

To Presidents in the region who had congratulated @KagutaMuseveni, @HEBobiwine said it was against the spirit of the East African community. After the election held under the publicly known conditions of violence he said it was "heartbreaking" to here congratulatory messages.

"We are an East African community not a club of presidents" but a community of values. He then made several appeals for action by Uganda's development partners including the restoration of the internet. He said it was now upon the government to show the election was transparent

He appealed to the European Union and United States saying that while they supported President Yoweri Museveni as a strategic security partner - they should not continue to do so at the cost of human rights which he said were shared values.

At one point he referred to President Museveni as "former President and also called for a forensic audit of the election result as he said had happened in Haiti. He also asked the US to consider targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act.

"We don't want the US to come off as sponsoring the terror inflicted on Ugandans" he said. He was asked if he had specific names of people who should be targeted by GLOMAC and he named @FrankTumwebazek and IGP Ochola.

He also said bizarrely ( for me because it seemed quite odd) that the Commissioner General of @URAuganda was in the National Tally Centre and responsible for "transmitting" results. It was the first I was hearing of this true or not.

I will tweet the portion in which Barbie Kyagulanyi gave an account of the conditions they were facing at their home in a bit.