Latif Madoi, a Ugandan clothier, used to be at his style academy on 13 Might when cops marched into the construction.

To Mr Madoi’s suprise they put him in cuffs, arresting him and 4 of his scholars. In addition they seized a few of clothier’s stitching machines and completed clothes.

Mr Madoi’s offence? Prosecuters charged the 47-year-old with possessing “uniforms declared to be for the exclusive use” of the army and police, which is unlawful below Ugandan regulation.

Greater than a future nearest, Mr Madoi remainder in Kasangati jail, at the outskirts of the capital, Kampala.

He’s “depressed”, his attorney George Musisi advised BBC Information, and having to snip off the dreadlocks he spent 17 years rising is among the primary causes.

Haircuts are same old process for all inmates in Uganda however Mr Madoi’s locs had been key to his Rasta identification, Mr Musisi says.

This sentiment used to be echoed through Bobi Wine, Uganda’s charismatic opposition chief and singer, whose actual title is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.

Upcoming visiting Mr Madoi in prison, Bobi Wine advised his two million fans on social media platform X that the clothier’s “greatest pain was having to lose his dreadlocked hair”.

Critics are satisfied Mr Madoi used to be locked up as a result of he designed Bobi Wine’s signature, hearth engine-red overalls.

The hashtag “#FreeLatif” has been circulating amongst Ugandans on social media, with the self-styled “ghetto president” weighing in.

“I publicly wear the overall that he made for me, why should he be in jail for making it?” Bobi Wine requested his X fans.

The police say that after they raided Madoi’s faculty, they discovered unlawful clothes together with “military overalls”, “military caps” and an “army green pair of shorts”.

Since 2005, dressed in army uniform has been unlawful in Uganda. The federal government not too long ago added crimson berets, which Bobi Wine and his supporters have transform identified for dressed in, to the checklist of outlawed clothes.

Mr Madoi’s attorney says he doesn’t imagine the police seized unlawful pieces from his faculty.

He additionally argues that the pressure must have equipped him with footage of the clothes in query, however police spokesperson Patrick Onyango advised the BBC that “exhibits” are handiest passed to their proprietor “after the case has been disposed of by the courts”.

Mr Madoi used to be widely recognized in Uganda even earlier than his association with Bobi Wine.

The clothier has bagged a few African style awards and Ugandan newspaper the Day by day Observe known as him a “revolutionary garment designer of the first degree”.

In addition to Bobi Wine, Mr Madoi has made garments for community figures like Fortunate Dube, a overdue South African reggae superstar, and Jamaican hitmaker Busy Sign.

Mr Madoi additionally based and teaches at a way academy – the only raided through the police terminating future. His ambition, he as soon as stated, is to provide his scholars “skills to get by in life, earn enough money to do more than survive”.

His arrest coincided with a crackdown – or what police known as an “intelligence-led operation” – on civilians dressed in untouched or lookalike army and police uniforms.

At the life Mr Madoi used to be detained, Uganda Police Pressure stated they had been “cordoning off areas, conducting searches in targeted premises, collecting all items reserved for security forces, prosecuting suspects found with such items, and restoring order”.

A handful of nation had been arrested throughout the operation, together with an MP from Bobi Wine’s Nationwide Cohesion Platform birthday party and a cleaner at his house, the police stated.

Mr Musisi feels Mr Madoi used to be arrested to “intimidate the opposition and its supporters”.

In Uganda, safety forces have a protracted historical past of going upcoming President Yoweri Museveni’s political combatants.

Bobi Wine, the president’s most powerful challenger, has been arrested various occasions and confronted a number of fees, together with treason.

Police even shot on the former singer pace he used to be campaigning in 2021 and the NUP birthday party frequently whinge their participants and supporters are being centered.

The government reject the arrests were political and say they’ve been vital to guard regulation and layout throughout opposition protests.

Upcoming visiting Mr Madoi in prison, Bobi Wine stated the police “took away many of his machines and brought his business to a standstill”.

Fellow designers in Uganda now worry the similar factor would possibly occur to them, one garment maker advised the BBC.

“That thing shocked us designers,” says Lwazi Paddy, who works below the title Surprise Designr.

Mr Paddy, who says he were given his get started through finding out at Mr Madoi’s faculty, says: “[Madoi] just creates red attire for people. And as designers, we get clients who like such things… he’s just doing whatever he does in a rightful way.”

Mr Madoi will let go jail for a cut occasion on 24 June to wait a court docket listening to – there he’s going to to find out whether or not his request for bail has been granted.

Mr Musisi is “optimistic” – he says he has witnessed defendants in homogeneous instances get off with out being convicted.

“The intention is to send fear and terror into the supporters of the opposition party, not necessarily prosecution,” he says.

However even though this does end up to be the case, the slicing of Mr Madoi’s dreadlocks approach he’s going to be reminded of his enjoy each occasion he appears to be like in a replicate for a protracted occasion to return.