A Photo Of Bobi Wine With The Title “Nnyinimu Mwali” Is Altered

A photo of Bobi Wine with the words “Nnyinimu Mwali” and “Obuganda buladde,” was shared by an X user, with a caption claiming that he is using the words yet the phrase is reserved for the Kabaka of Buganda.

**Photo:** *The* cropped image of Bobi Wine being *shared*.

The post gained over 73,000 views, 23 reposts, 17 quoted reposts, 237 likes, and 2 bookmarks as of June 10th, 2024.

Evidence/ research:

The words “Nnyinimu Mwali” and “Obuganda buladde,” loosely translated as ‘the owner is present’ and ‘the Buganda kingdom is peaceful’,’ are both reserved for the Kabaka of Buganda. Baganda people commonly use them to praise and affirm their king and kingdom.

We performed a Google reverse image search and found several matching posts with similar claims and fact checks responding to them saying the photo was cropped. Among these is Gabriel Buule’s post, a Ugandan journalist working with Daily Monitor, which had two photos, the full image with Kabaka’s photo on it and the cropped one. Unfortunately, the same photo and narrative still makes rounds online.

Upon checking Bobi Wine’s Facebook page, we landed on a post from June 1st, 2024, highlighting moments captured during the National Unity Platforms’ tour in Masaka on Friday, May 31st, 2024, and among the photos, is one debunking the claim.

The photo is of a poster attached to an arch. After analyzing other photos of the arch and checking signposts, we found out that the arch was erected at Lukaya along the Masaka-Kampala highway road.

**Photo:** *A green circle highlighting a signpost with words written on it, St Agnes M Nursery and Primary School, Lukaya, next to the arch.*

Using Google Maps, we confirmed that the photo was taken at the Lukaya Road Toll Market along the Masaka-Kampala highway by identifying similar features in the photo on Google Maps and the photos posted by Bobi Wine.

**Photo:** *Green circles show a building and yellow arrows show an unfinished wall, which is spotted in a photo from Google Maps and photos from Bobi Wine’s Facebook page.*

When you look closely, the poster has the Kabaka, Bobi Wine, and another person next to him in a pictorial hierarchy.

Rating/Verdict:

The photo depicting Bobi Wine using the title “Nnyinimu Mwali,” a phrase culturally reserved for the Kabaka (king) of the Buganda kingdom, is altered. The Kabaka’s image was cropped off the original banner and replaced with that of Bobi Wine, to make it look like he is being addressed as Nnyinimu Mwali.

Edited by Rukia Nabbanja

This fact-check post was produced by Debunk Media Initiative under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).

Reagan Kiyimba

2021 Africa Check Award-winning Fact-Checker, Media Challenge Initiative Fellow class of 2020, 2022 Code For Africa and International Fact-Checking Network Climate Change Fact-Checking Fellow, 360 Digital Sherlock, trained by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab in open-source intelligence.