The United Kingdom has officially lifted the travel ban on National UNity Platform leader; Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, clearing the path for his travel to the UK this November to launch his diaspora mobilisation tours there.
NUP legal chief, Benjamin Katana when contacted on Monday morning confirmed the development and said that “it’s true the travel ban on Bobi Wine has been lifted.”
“..he (Bobi) has also been issued a visa to travel to the UK,” he added.
Recently, a local online publication; ChimpReports said in an exclusive report that Bobi Wine, the leader of the main opposition party; National Unity Platform (NUP) would soon be allowed to enter the United Kingdom ahead of his global diaspora campaigns.
The singer-turned-politician had been excluded by the UK’s Home Office on the basis of the anti-gay lyrics he released in 2014.
In the lyrics, Bobi had urged the public to “shoot all the battymen.”
Human rights activists quickly piled pressure on the Home Office to block Bobi from performing at the Troxy Arena in the UK.
Since then, the Home Office has kept Bobi away from England.
However, Bobi Wine would later engage British diplomats, international lawyers and activists to enable him to travel to the UK.
The meetings are said to have taken place at Bobi’s home in Magere where he met with diplomats and activists from all over the world.
International lawyers argued that Bobi apologised for the words of the anti-gay lyrics and spent years advocating for the rights of LGBTQ people and should be allowed to enter the UK.
According to a popular UK newspaper, The Telegraph, Peter Tatchell, the veteran gay rights campaigner, and other bodies, publicly backed Bobi Wine and called for him to be allowed into the UK.
“He (Bobi) wants to come in order to help promote a new film called Bobi Wine: Ghetto President, which charts his rise from a Kampala slum to take on one of Africa’s longest-standing autocracies,” said the Telegraph.
Part of the new film, which will be released in November 2023, is directed by British filmmaker Christopher Sharp and focuses on alleged widespread election fraud in Uganda.
Bobi Wine has already missed one premiere of the film in August – his lawyers said the Home Office never responded to an application to allow him in.
The power to exclude a foreign national is in the gift of the Home Secretary, but he or she is expected to review decisions periodically.
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