Bobi Wine: How Philly Lutaaya inspired my confidence

"Everything you go through is part of the journey; it's a test," Wine said in a video seen by this reporter.

"You are lucky to be in such a position. Baganda say, it's better they come ahead than behind your back. It's good to go through hardships because that's how you will be able to respect people going through the same."

According to Wine, where he grew up, no one believed anyone could come out of there and become successful, let alone a global phenomenon.

But he saw the late Philly Lutaaya do it and realised it's possible to even achieve greater heights.

"That's how you will know that they are also human beings that can turn into something important. That's what I was telling kids, for us when we were growing up, people in Gomba village weren't taken seriously. And it's only one person that inspired my confidence, and that's Philly Lutaaya," Wine said.

"He had come from our village and was able to succeed and become an international artiste. Even when he died at a young age, what he had achieved inspired us to become the next Phillys of our generation," he went on.

"I'm trying to inspire young people to aspire to become the next Bobi Wines so that they can do something even bigger than what we've been able to achieve."

Wine in 2017 surprised many when he ditched his widely successful music career to run as Kyadondo County East constituency Member of Parliament (MP) during a by-election that pitted him against two seasoned candidates – Sitenda Sebalu of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and Apollo Kantinti of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

He won.

In 2021, he took it further and ran in the presidential elections on the back of a volatile political career. He is now the leader of the strongest opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP).