Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, real names is now commonly known as Bobi Wine was Born on 12th February, 1982 in Mpigi District, south west of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.
Bobi Wine is a Christian who comes from a family of nine (9) siblings into the harsh life of ghetto living in Kamwokya, one of the worst slums of Kampala and if his problems taught him anything, definitely innovation was one of them.
Underground research shows that Bobi Wine only had a Walkman, a borrowed amplifier and a speaker which he used to make ends meet in his early ghetto life.
During his school days, Bobi Wine could get into trouble with the school administration but he managed to study and complete school. By the end of his ‘O’ level he had composed many songs but had no money to record them.
Bobi Wine in ghetto
In 1998 after his ‘A’ level, Bobi Wine finally saved some money over the years to record and managed to make four tracks namely; Kalyonso, Doreen, Namulembe but they were of very low quality so they did not receive any credit or attention.
Later on in early 2000’s Bobi Wine tried his luck again and recorded a song dubbed “Abakyala”, this didn’t do well either. By then he was in his first year in Makerere University and made mud bricks during his free time (locally known as Okuba blocka). He also did painting, while he was a porter at a building site.
“I wasn’t afraid of my friends disrespecting me because they understood my situation. Besides I am not after giving a false impression of myself so I could go work and perform at occasions like Karaoke in nightspots around the city,” narrated Bobi Wine.
Finally, a chance to record again came and Bobi Wine managed to record his song “Akagoma” meaning ‘the drum‘ which turned out as a big success and a door breaker to his carrier.
Bobi Wine is a person who loves the ragga/dancehall style of music because he feels that’s the best way he can express himself so this acted as his best medium to communicate content and messages to his fans.
Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine is a holder of a bachelor’s degree in music dance and drama (MDD) at the prestigious Makerere University, the biggest University in East and Central Africa.
Bobi Wine started up his own music group known as Firebase Crew and over the years it recruited different musicians including Nubian Li, Buju, Buchaman who left later on and so many more.
He is also married to one of the strongest people in his life called Barbie Kyagulanyi Itungo and the two have been married since 2012 and the two have four children together.
Years back Bobi Wine started showing interest for politics so he started changing music style to narrative political music which later on helped him pass on more messages to his fans hence scooping himself a parliamentary seat as the legislator of Kyadondo East.
His participation into politics brought up a lot of heat in the political fraternity of Uganda as different people started eyeing him as the next president of Uganda, despite his nickname of “Ghetto President.”
Bobi Wine got arrested in August 2018 after an allegation a protest that took place in Arua District after a mob of angry protestors attacked President Museveni’s convoy hence leading to shading of blood and arresting of different legislators including Bobi Wine himself.
