Bobi Wine uses his marriage to Barbie to preach against tribalism

National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine says his marriage to Barbara (Barbie) Itungo, a non-Muganda, is proof enough that he doesn’t condone tribalism.

In 2011, Bobi Wine wedded Barbie at Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala, sealing the marriage of two Ugandans from two of the country’s tribes that have often come up when the issue of tribalism has been discussed in President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s government.

Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-politician, is one of Museveni’s 10 opponents in the 2021 presidential election.

Bobi’s critics have severally accused him and his NUP party of championing ethnic Buganda’s cause — and, consequently, of tribalism.

Yet the youthful presidential hopeful thinks his marriage to Barbie, a Munyankore with roots in the Banyarwanda tribe, should be enough for his critics to understand that the tribal card no longer sells nor will it help persuade his supporters to ditch him.

Campaigning in Kyankwanzi on November 27, Bobi Wine wondered why some politicians have continued to use mainstream and social media to pursue this line of argument.

“There are people now trading the foolish line of tribalism; I am a proud Muganda which is not a crime and my wife is from western Uganda, how can I be tribalistic?” Bobi Wine wondered.

Political commentary, hinging their predictions on recent protests over Bobi Wine’s arrest, have pointed to the possibility of a genocide if government does not address key issues, including tribalism.

There was worry that the November 18 and 19 protests, in which over 45 people, could have been more disastrous had they largely assumed a tribal face.