Latif Madoi, a distinguished Ugandan designer, was at his style academy on 13 Could when law enforcement officials marched into the constructing.
To Mr Madoi’s suprise they put him in cuffs, arresting him and 4 of his college students. Additionally they seized a few of designer’s stitching machines and completed clothes.
Mr Madoi’s offence? Prosecuters charged the 47-year-old with possessing “uniforms declared to be for the unique use” of the army and police, which is unlawful beneath Ugandan legislation.
Greater than a month later, Mr Madoi stays in Kasangati jail, on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala.
He’s “depressed”, his lawyer George Musisi advised BBC Information, and having to chop off the dreadlocks he spent 17 years rising is without doubt one of the predominant causes.
Haircuts are normal process for all inmates in Uganda however Mr Madoi’s locs had been key to his Rasta identification, Mr Musisi says.
This sentiment was echoed by Bobi Wine, Uganda’s charismatic opposition chief and singer, whose actual identify is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.
After visiting Mr Madoi in jail, Bobi Wine advised his two million followers on social media platform X that the designer’s “biggest ache was having to lose his dreadlocked hair”.
Critics are satisfied Mr Madoi was locked up as a result of he designed Bobi Wine’s signature, fireplace engine-red overalls.
The hashtag “#FreeLatif” has been circulating amongst Ugandans on social media, with the self-styled “ghetto president” weighing in.
“I publicly put on the general that he made for me, why ought to he be in jail for making it?” Bobi Wine requested his X followers.
The police say that after they raided Madoi’s faculty, they discovered unlawful clothes together with “army overalls”, “army caps” and an “military inexperienced pair of shorts”.
Since 2005, sporting army uniform has been unlawful in Uganda. The federal government lately added purple berets, which Bobi Wine and his supporters have turn into recognized for sporting, to the checklist of outlawed clothes.
Mr Madoi’s lawyer says he does not imagine the police seized unlawful objects from his faculty.
He additionally argues that the pressure ought to have offered him with footage of the clothes in query, however police spokesperson Patrick Onyango advised the BBC that “reveals” are solely handed to their proprietor “after the case has been disposed of by the courts”.
Mr Madoi was well-known in Uganda even earlier than his affiliation with Bobi Wine.
The designer has bagged a few African style awards and Ugandan newspaper the Every day Monitor referred to as him a “revolutionary garment designer of the primary diploma”.
In addition to Bobi Wine, Mr Madoi has made garments for public figures like Fortunate Dube, a late South African reggae star, and Jamaican hitmaker Busy Sign.
Mr Madoi additionally based and teaches at a style academy – the one raided by the police final month. His ambition, he once said, is to provide his college students “abilities to get by in life, earn sufficient cash to do greater than survive”.
His arrest coincided with a crackdown – or what police referred to as an “intelligence-led operation” – on civilians sporting precise or lookalike army and police uniforms.
On the day Mr Madoi was detained, Uganda Police Drive mentioned they had been “cordoning off areas, conducting searches in focused premises, accumulating all objects reserved for safety forces, prosecuting suspects discovered with such objects, and restoring order”.
A handful of individuals had been arrested in the course of the operation, together with an MP from Bobi Wine’s Nationwide Unity Platform celebration and a cleaner at his dwelling, the police mentioned.
Mr Musisi feels Mr Madoi was arrested to “intimidate the opposition and its supporters”.
In Uganda, safety forces have an extended historical past of going after President Yoweri Museveni’s political opponents.
Bobi Wine, the president’s strongest challenger, has been arrested quite a few instances and confronted a number of fees, together with treason.
Police even shot on the former singer whereas he was campaigning in 2021 and the NUP celebration typically complain their members and supporters are being focused.
The authorities deny the arrests have been political and say they’ve been needed to keep up legislation and order throughout opposition protests.
After visiting Mr Madoi in jail, Bobi Wine mentioned the police “took away a lot of his machines and introduced his enterprise to a standstill”.
Fellow designers in Uganda now concern the identical factor may occur to them, one garment maker advised the BBC.
“That factor shocked us designers,” says Lwazi Paddy, who works beneath the identify Miracle Designr.
Mr Paddy, who says he obtained his begin by finding out at Mr Madoi’s faculty, says: “[Madoi] simply creates purple apparel for individuals. And as designers, we get purchasers who like such issues… he is simply doing no matter he does in a rightful approach.”
Mr Madoi will go away jail for a short while on 24 June to attend a court docket listening to – there he’ll discover out whether or not his request for bail has been granted.
Mr Musisi is “optimistic” – he says he has witnessed defendants in related instances get off with out being convicted.
“The intention is to ship concern and terror into the supporters of the opposition celebration, not essentially prosecution,” he says.
However even when this does show to be the case, the slicing of Mr Madoi’s dreadlocks means he will probably be reminded of his expertise each time he seems to be in a mirror for a very long time to come back.
