Bobi Wine talks Barbie’s super genes: ‘My kids have taken after her’

Right from when a child is born, the conversation never really stops, with quips like “your eyes are just like your mother’s” or “your nose is just like your father’s” plaguing every other family meeting.

In societies like Uganda which are largely patriarchal, there is usually a wider acceptance of children taking after their fathers, the opposite of which can be simply overlooked in one extreme, or could shake families and relationships to their very foundations in the other.

However, for musician and political opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine), this debate is settled. His wife Barbie has edged him, and he is content.

Touching slightly on his childrens’ characteristics in an interview with Stella Nandawula in BBS’ Mubuwuufu program which aired Sunday, May 28, 2023, Bobi Wine admitted that his children have mostly taken after their mother.

Giving an example of his son Solomon, who recently broke out into athletics winning a bronze medal in 200M race in the Ultimate Race Night in Dubai, Bobi Wine said this is a talent that the 18-year-old certainly picked from his mother and not him.

“In sports, apart from fighting, I was never that good, and I think my son’s talent on the track, he took it from his mother because his mother was a good runner,” he said.

“But for me, kids even used to joke that I had two left feet! I remember when one of our teachers, Mr Owen, put us in the field to run; I never ran with my P4 classmates. They put me in P3 and I would still trail. So when they put me to run with the P2 class I decided to quit.”

As a child, Bobi Wine recalls excelling in music, having started singing in P2 class, and being choir leader at three different primary schools. He was also great in art and an avid debater.

But on being asked if any of his children have inherited any of these traits, Bobi Wine answered in the negative, explaining that he has decided to let each one take their own preferred paths.

“I don't wish to force my children to be what I used to be because what I do is mine,” he said.

Besides, he says, his own father never really enjoyed what he was doing as a kid. Instead, the NUP leader says he’s decided to support his children to do whatever they are passionate about.

In December 2022, Bobi Wine’s son Shadrack Mbogo said he had no interest in following in his father’s political footsteps. Instead, he said, he wished to join the army.