<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Ugandan opposition leader and former presidential candidate Bobi Wine said today that police had surrounded his residence and put him “under house arrest” ahead of a planned protest.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Opposition politicians had planned demonstrations today against the poor condition of roads in Uganda, which is hosting two global summits in the coming days.</div><div><br></div><div>Wine, a popstar-turned-politician, said police and soldiers had barred him from leaving his home in Magere, north of the capital Kampala.</div><div><br></div><div>“The cowardly military &amp; police have surrounded our home and put us under house arrest, but the protest is on,” the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader said on X.</div><div><br></div><div>“Fix our roads! Free Political Prisoners! Free Uganda!”</div><div><br></div><div>Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, challenged veteran President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda’s last election in 2021, calling for an end to his iron-fisted rule.</div><div><br></div><div>Former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change opposition party said today that he too was not allowed to leave his house.</div><div><br></div><div>“Barricaded at home by the COWARDS! No turning back; we deserve better. Please do what you can, wherever you’re, with whatever you have, to show the terrible roads affecting you today,” he posted on X.</div><div><br></div><div>A police spokesman confirmed the “security deployment” outside the two residences.</div><div><br></div><div>“We have taken some measures to stop them from instigating some people to hold unlawful assemblies and political demonstrations,” Patrick Onyango, spokesman for Kampala Metropolitan Police, told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>“There is security deployment at Bobi Wine and Dr Besigye’s homes not to arrest but as a preventive measure in line with police mandate.”</div><div><br></div><div>Opposition parties have accused the government of detaining homeless people and razing thousands of roadside kiosks in a clean-up drive ahead of the Non-Aligned Movement and G77+China summits in Kampala. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>