Former presidential candidate Charles Senkubuge contrasts his campaign with Bobi Wine’s

Looking back at his own presidential bid 20 years earlier in 2001, Senkubuge can't help pointing out the stark difference in the treatment.

“I feel bad when I see Kyagulanyi being battered,” he said. “A candidate is supposed to enjoy the candidacy because there is already a lot that is draining them.”

Senkubuge, who founded Bakayimbira Dramactors 40 years ago, decided to give politicians a try in 2001. At the time he’d become a household name, thanks to his exhilarating theater performances.

Joining politics, he told Ruth Kakibbala in an interview, was initially intended as a gimmick.

“I just wanted to show people, especially entertainers like me that you can actually pick presidential nomination papers. People thought this was impossible, but when I got duly nominated without being beaten or arrested, they realised that it could be done,” he said.

Unlike Bobi Wine’s candidacy which was marred with extreme violence that even led to loss of many lives, Senkubuge says his own campaign was full of fun.

He recalls enjoying massive security that was provided by the Electoral Commission which left many of his theater colleagues flabbergasted. 

“These guys were blocking workers from entering Radio Simba when I was being interviewed there.... I remember one time entering a fuel station and all cars were blocked from accessing it,” he narrated.

But weeks into the campaign, as the buzz started growing in the media, Senkubuge ended up on the president’s radder, and he got pressured to pull out of the race.

Senkubuge recalls his campaigns ending with a meeting with the President at State House Entebbe, who advised him to contest in the parliamentary race in his constituency of Bukuto South, and promised to show him the benefits of “doing a favor to a sitting president.”

This promise he says however, has remained unfulfilled to this date.