Contents of the last conversation between National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine and robber Paddy Sserunjoji aka Sobbi have been revealed. Sobbi was leader of Kifeesi gang, a criminal outfit. But he had claimed to have reformed. He was at some point entitled to state protection.
Sobbi met his death in Kibaale Village, Kigumba Parish, Maddu Subcounty in Gomba District on December 18, 2023.
According to SP Majid Karim, the acting spokesperson of Katonga Regional Police, preliminary findings suggest that around 12:30pm, a group of 50 people armed with sticks, pangas, and spears attacked another group on a land belonging to a one Kalisa in Kibaale village, Kigumba parish, Maddu sub-county, Gomba district, leading to Sobbi’s death.
Karim has also given details on the land wrangle Sobbi was involved in. “The disputed land was purchased by Kalisa, who paid 20 million out of a total of 100 million in 2007. However, it is claimed that he bought it from the wrong person. Another group, purporting to be the children and grandchildren of the late Paul Kibi and led by Deborah Nagadiya and Barton Kiwewa, emerged with land titles, claiming their ownership of the same land,” he noted.
“Legal proceedings were initiated, but before the case could be resolved, the second group brought individuals from Kampala Kisenyi to occupy and clear the land.”
BOBI WINE SPEAKS ON HIS FRIEND SOBBI
In his days as a musician and as a boxer and a boxing fan, Bobi Wine was a friend to Sobbi. He recalls that Sobbi got his name from a movie titled ‘Escape from Sobibor.’
Bobi Wine remembers Sobbi saying “there is no escape from Sobibor” as he moved out of a wood and tin video hall in the ghettos of Kisenyi in the late 90s.
He remembers how he acquired his nickname and his knuckles.
“The trending movie then was called ‘Escape from Sobibor,’ a story of a concentration camp called Sobibor in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s that saw thousands of Jews oppressed and killed. He since nicknamed himself Sobibor. Over the years, the name was shortened to Sobbi,” recalls Bobi Wine.
“During some of our engagements in clubs and dance halls or whenever we met at various boxing events or gyms, he would flash his trademark knuckle which looked like a small stone placed at the back of his finger. ‘Sobi alina knuckle elinga Dduulu,’ we would joke.”
Bobi Wine says Sobbi was a friend. Now an opposition politician, Bobi Wine says he was concerned about some state officials using Sobbi for their selfish goals. Bobi Wine suggests that his friend has suffered the fate of all those the state uses and dumps.
“Despite his gangster character, he was my friend for so many years. He would privately, and sometimes publically talk about how he was always used by senior government officials to commit crimes like robberies and land grabs on their behalf only to be imprisoned alone,” notes Bobi Wine.
“Like many talented boxers of my generation have been used against their people only to be eliminated when they’re no longer needed, Sobbi faced the same fate.
There is no evidence that the state had a hand in Sobbi’s murder which is being treated as resulting from a clash over land.
But Bobi Wine has not forgotten Sobbi’s sin, including his friend harassing him and his supporters.
“During the 2021 elections, he was used to trail and harass me, his own, old ghetto friend. He conducted the abduction and disappearance of over 50 of our friends, including fellow boxers like Vegas Lubega,” claims Bobi Wine.
“Some of these who were lucky to return, narrated the ordeal they went through at Lwamayuba island in Kalangala where they were kept incommunicado; tortured, and treated as slaves for over a year. They spoke of how some were summarily executed and fed to crocodiles. Many of them have never been seen again. All this time, he was working under Kaka Bagyenda, then the head of ISO.”
BOBI WINE MEETS SOBBI
Months before Sobbi died in a clash over land, he had asked to meet Bobi Wine. The NUP leader claims that Sobbi confessed about the dirty deals he was doing for the regime so as to earn some money. By harassing Bobi and his group, Sobbi reportedly told the NUP leader, he was just implementing orders from above, failure of which he claimed he would be removed off the face of the earth.
Bobi Wine claims: “When I last met Sobi about 6 months ago (he reached out to me), he told me that he was doing all this dirty regime work because it was his only way to stay alive. ‘Bro, you know I have no problem with you but if I don’t take their orders, they will eliminate me,’ he said to me.”
Bobi says he bluntly told Sobbi he would be used and dumped like others before him. He also told him he will never be ‘one of them’ and that they ‘never love’ him.
“I reminded him of Zebra, Kitatta, Isma Ichuli, and many others who have been used and later eliminated by the same regime. I told him that after being used, he would be eliminated in the most disgraceful manner,” he says.
“‘You will never be one of them, and they will never love you,’ I told him. ‘They will use you against your own people and after your people have hated you enough, they will get rid of you like a useless piece of rubbish.’”
Isma Ichuli was shot dead in Kyanja, days after a Museveni minister was gunned down by his bodyguard. (See Details Here and There).
As for boxer Zebra, Bobi Wine insisted state operatives had killed him. (Read Stories Here and There).
Bobi Wine even told Sobbi the regime did not like people from central Uganda so much. He thinks Sobbi was a fool for swallowing a bait from the regime.
“He even complained about the many people he started with but because of their connections in the regime, they had long been promoted to big offices leaving him to stay doing the dirty street work. I asked him to name just one person from this region who has been used against his or her people that ended up well but he couldn’t name even one,” says Bobi Wine.
“I told him to expect nothing but the worst ending. When I saw his body lying down like a dead dog, I remembered these words. Sobbi was a fool to think that he was one of them. Unfortunately, they never learn!”
The NUP leader comes from central Uganda where he beat President Yoweri Museveni in the 2021 presidential election. Museveni claimed Bobi Wine stole his votes. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
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