- Ashburg Kato claims he created Bobi Wine’s first YouTube channel and Facebook page.
- He says the goal was to build an official platform for the singer’s music online.
- His remarks have sparked debate about the early days of digital promotion in Uganda’s music industry.
Retired blogger Ashburg Kato has resurfaced in the news following Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s pledge of Shs5 billion to support Ugandan content creators and bloggers. The funds were announced in connection with the bloggers’ association currently led by Isaac Katende, popularly known as Kasuku.
Kato believes he deserves a share of the money, arguing that he played a major role in laying the foundation for Uganda’s blogging and online promotion culture before many of today’s content creators joined the space.
Speaking during a sit-down interview on the Shalom 256 Podcast, Kato—who previously fell out with the National Unity Platform before joining the National Resistance Movement—shared details about his past relationship with Bobi Wine. According to him, he was instrumental in helping the singer-turned-politician establish a presence on major social media platforms.
Kato recalled advising Bobi Wine that his online presence was weak at a time when many other channels were uploading his music without any official source.
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“I told him his presence on social media was lacking. Whenever he released a song, I would see other channels posting it,” Kato explained. “So I suggested that he needed an official YouTube channel, and he gave me the responsibility to create it. I’m the one who opened the YouTube channel he still uses today, and I later gave him the password so he could manage it.”
He said the initial goal was simply to create an authentic platform for Bobi Wine’s content, without focusing too much on views at the beginning. Over time, however, the channel gradually grew and attracted more attention.
Kato also claimed he played a similar role in establishing Bobi Wine’s presence on Facebook.
“At that time, Facebook only allowed 5,000 friends on personal accounts,” he said. “His personal account under the name Bobi Kyagulanyi had already reached that limit. I advised that we open an official Facebook page under the name Bobi Wine, and that’s what we did.”
According to Kato, when they started the page, Bobi Wine was still competing musically with Bebe Cool, who was celebrating a milestone of about 50,000 followers on Facebook at the time.
“Back then, reaching 100,000 followers was a big deal,” he said. “People used to throw parties to celebrate that milestone. Many public figures and institutions did it. But we kept pushing, and he eventually surpassed many of them. When he later joined politics, his following grew even bigger. Now he’s more followed than most of them.”
Kato’s remarks have since sparked discussion online, with many revisiting the early days of social media promotion in Uganda’s music industry.
