Bobi Wine accused of lying about his age

A Ugandan court has issued criminal summons against aspiring presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, more famously known as Bobi Wine, over charges of giving false information to the electoral commission about his age.

The Wakiso Chief Magistrates Court ordered that he should appear before it on 16 September in response to an application filed by a lawyer, Male Mabirizi, seeking to privately prosecute the musician-turned-politician.

In his application filed on 3 August, Mr Mabirizi alleges that Bobi Wine’s academic transcripts indicate he was born on 12 February 1980, the date is different from the one on the politician’s passport and on the form he submitted to the electoral commission in 2017 when he was nominated to contest for a parliamentary seat.

Bobi Wine’s passport indicates he was born on 12 February 1982.

He also faces charges of “obtaining registration by false pretence and uttering false documents” in the same court.

The debate over the presidential hopeful’s age and the authenticity of his academic documents have been trending on social media platforms for several weeks.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Bobi Wine said the latest case against him is part of continuing efforts by the government to detract and discredit those in the opposition.

The National Unity Platform (NUP) leader also explained that his father changed his date of birth to 1980 while he was in primary school in order to get him to sit for national exams as he could not afford to pay tuition fees for all his siblings.

Bobi Wine currently faces other separate charges of treason and intending to alarm, annoy or ridicule President Yowei Museveni.

If successfully convicted for allegedly falsifying his age, Bobi Wine ’s 2021 presidential bid would run into trouble.

According to Uganda’s constitution, any person convicted in court for an offence involving dishonesty is not qualified to stand as president.

source: BBC