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Popular musician Eddy Kenzo (aka Edrisah Musuuza) was appointed to be Uganda's new senior advisor on creatives. It's part of President Yoweri Museveni's efforts to draw more musicians into his entourage. When did Uganda's music industry become so embroiled in politics?
 
Over the past decade, politics has consumed a generation of musicians, deeply dividing Uganda's music industry, which analysts now predict has a bleak future. President Yoweri Museveni's main political nemesis, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, is a musician turned politician. The two men will be the main faces in the 2026 presidential election.
 
As the industry has become more political, Kenzo has often said he did not want to be dragged into politics that divides fans. "People who supported me to be who I am are Ugandans who were not divided," he said four years ago.
 
Yet Kenzo has officially stepped into the political arena, in a position that will likely impact his music career, by alienating fans he dearly cherished. "We might not see him performing as much for the ordinary person, especially in central Uganda, where there's a lot of resistance against the regime," says Andrew Kaggwa, a creative industry writer.
 
Central Uganda is the political support base of Wine, who won the region in 2021 wen he was Museveni's main challenger in the presidential election.Ahead of the 2016 elections, things changed as 12 musicians, mostly Uganda's celebrated musicians – including Cool and Chameleone – teamed up to release Museveni's reelection campaign song: Tubonga Nawe (we are with you), an action that openly divided the music industry on a political issue for the first timeKaggwa considers the song's premiere a turning point in the industry and nation. Without it, he says, opposition leader Wine would not have emerged on the political scene.
 
The president further appointed two female singers, Catherine Kusasira (aka Maama Kabina) and Jennifer Nakangubi (aka Full Figure), as his advisors.In response, Wine's National Unity Platform (NUP) party sponsored two singers: Hilary Kiyaga (aka Dr Hilderman) and Geoffrey Lutaaya, who won parliamentary elections in 2021.
 
Li says the future of the music industry rests on whether Museveni succeeds in keeping it under his fold. "If the regime wins, then that means we are going to have an industry that does not talk about the real issues that concern Ugandans. Instead we are going to have artists only singing about love. But entertainment is not only limited to love".