By Emmanuel Nduka Obisue
The wife of Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has been hospitalised in Kampala after what she described as a violent overnight raid on her home by soldiers searching for her husband.
Barbra Itungo Kyagulanyi spoke to journalists from her hospital bed, recounting how armed men stormed the family residence, assaulted her, and demanded information about Wine’s whereabouts.
According to Kyagulanyi, the soldiers believed her husband was at home after his mobile phone briefly came online.
“One of the main reasons was to look for my husband because his phone had been home,” she said. “I switched it on yesterday because there was a password I was looking for. I think they got a signal and were sure he was home. But he had left his phone behind,” she added.
Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said in a post on X on Saturday that “hundreds of soldiers” raided his home in his absence, looted property, and assaulted his wife. “They put my wife at gunpoint, asking her to reveal my whereabouts. They strangled her and insulted her,” he wrote.
Kyagulanyi gave a harrowing account of the assault, alleging that soldiers beat her in an attempt to force her to hand over her husband’s phone password.
“One of the men held me by my hair, lifted me up and hit my head on a pole in the sitting room, splitting my mouth. They pushed me down and sat on me. I could feel four bodies seated on me. He kept asking for the password, but I told him in Runyankore that they had already done enough and they would not get it,” she said.
Wine has been in hiding since last week’s presidential election, which saw President Yoweri Museveni declared the winner of a seventh term in office. Wine rejected the result, describing it as “blatant theft”.
Tensions have escalated sharply since the vote, with Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who heads Uganda’s armed forces, issuing threats against the opposition leader.
Earlier last week, Kainerugaba said 30 opposition supporters had been killed and more than 2,000 arrested since the election. “We have arrested more than 2,000 thugs that Kabobi thought he could use,” he wrote on X, using a derogatory nickname for Wine. “So far, we have killed 30 NUP terrorists,” he added, referring to Wine’s National Unity Platform party.
Last Thursday, police detained Muwanga Kivumbi, a lawmaker and deputy president of the National Unity Platform, accusing him of involvement in election-related violence in central Uganda that reportedly left seven people dead. Police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said Kivumbi is likely to face criminal charges.
Wine’s lawyer has appealed to the United Nations and the international community to demand “immediate and verifiable guarantees” of Wine’s safety to enable him to reunite with his family without harm.
Election observers say the polls were marred by widespread irregularities, including a days-long internet shutdown and heavy repression of opposition supporters.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said he is monitoring developments in Uganda with deep concern.
