Bobi Wine ally Jeffrey Smith has fired back at Adonia Ayebare for calling Capitol Hill engagements a publicity stunt.
Adonia Ayebare is Uganda’s permanent representative to the UN while Jeffrey Smith is the founder of Vanguard Africa, described by its owners as an innovative NGO dedicated to partnering with Africa’s visionary leaders to advance democracy and promote free and fair elections.
Jeffrey Smith is one of Bobi Wine’s overseas friends and is pushing for sanctions against the Museveni regime that Adonia Ayebare defends.
When the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader and 2026 presidential candidate shared photos of him at Capitol Hill, Adonia Ayebare called Bobi Wine’s Capitol Hill engagements a publicity stunt.
Ayebare said that Bobi Wine (real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) was free to return to Uganda. He also claimed that Bobi Wine’s “handlers like Jeffrey Smith will struggle to deliver because Uganda stands out as a beacon of hope in the current geopolitical environment.”
“This is a publicity stunt rather than a substantive engagement , anyone can engage people at the Hill,” wrote Ayebare.
“If the Uganda government was interested in blocking your travels they would have issued an Interpol red notice. You’re free to return home as you have yourself stated publicly and address whatever grievances you have.”
But Jeffrey Smith has fired back at Adonia Ayebare, suggesting that the regime in Kampala could be in panic, and claiming that Bobi Wine’s meetings abroad make the Museveni regime send agents to quietly lobby at Capitol Hill yet regime defenders and apologists now put on a brave face.
Jeffrey Smith also punched holes in Adonia Ayebare’s claim that Uganda is a beacon of hope in the regime, calling on the envoy to look at the number of people fleeing Uganda in recent times.
“Nice performance, Adonia. It’s funny how the loudest defenders of Museveni’s tyranny immediately whisper in panic to staffers the moment we sit down with lawmakers (not to mention, waste taxpayer money on lobbyists),” wrote Jeffrey Smith.
“Uganda’s ‘beacon’ status is why the diaspora grows every year.”
A top US senator has accused Uganda of turning into an exporter of brutality, as reported Here.
Also defending Bobi Wine’s Capitol Hill engagements was former leader of opposition Winnie Kizza, who castigated supposed pan Africanists for their hypocrisy, as reported Here.
Adonia Ayebare has previously been engaged in a war of words with Dr Kizza Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima over her UN job. (See Details Here and There).
