'I am not a criminal': Uganda opposition leader in hiding

NAIROBI - Uganda's opposition leader Bobi Wine told AFP on Wednesday he was "not a criminal" after going into hiding following last week's election in which President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term.

Wine, 43, a former singer turned politician who was arrested ahead of Uganda's last election in 2021, said on Saturday that he had escaped a police raid on his home. His whereabouts have been unknown since then.

He had denounced last Thursday's presidential election as "blatant theft".

In a phone interview, Wine said he was constantly on the move but was being "housed and protected by the common people".

Responding to a threat by Uganda's army chief and Museveni's son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, he said: "I'm not a criminal."

"I'm a presidential candidate and it's not a crime to run against his father," Wine -- whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi -- said.

On Tuesday, Kainerugaba, 51, who has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father, threatened in a post on X to hunt down and kill Wine.

"We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week," Kainerugaba wrote, referring to the opposition National Unity Platform led by Wine, who came second in the ballot.

"I'm praying the 23rd is Kabobi," he added, using his nickname for the opposition leader.

Asked about the future for his party, Wine said he did not have a firm plan.

"In a dictatorship, you don't draw a strategy, but you respond to the kind of oppression," he said.

Last week's ballot was marred by violence and an internet shutdown, while African observers said arrests and abductions had "instilled fear".

Museveni, 81, who won a landslide with 72 percent of the vote, has said the opposition are "terrorists" who had tried to use violence to overturn results.