KAMPALA, Uganda — The wife of Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine described from her hospital bed Saturday how armed men forced their way into her home and attacked her as they demanded to know where he was.
Barbara Kyagulanyi, known to supporters as Barbie, told reporters gathered around her as she recovers in the hospital that she did not cooperate with the dozens of men in military uniform who broke into her home Friday night. She told them she didn’t know where her husband was — and she refused to unlock her cellphone despite their demands.
The intruders harassed and insulted her, asking why she had married opposition leader Kyagulanyi Ssentamu — widely known as Bobi Wine — the most prominent of seven candidates who had challenged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in last week’s election.
Wine has been in hiding since Museveni was declared the winner of the Jan. 15 presidential election, with 71.6% of the vote, according to official results. Wine’s National Unity Platform party, or NUP, took 24.7% of the vote, a result he has rejected as fake.
Wine, who has called for peaceful protests, recently said he fears for his safety and is sheltering at an unknown location.
‘Swarm of men’
There has been a heavy security presence around Wine’s home. On Friday night, the couple’s children were not at home and Barbara Kyagulanyi was alone in the house, except for a guard at the front gate, when the gunmen forcibly accessed the property.
Kyagulanyi recorded the intruders on her phone. The video, posted on X, shocked many Ugandans. She said from her hospital bed that after she saw the “swarm of men,” she called her brother-in-law and told him, “This is the end.”
Kyagulanyi says two men held her while the rest searched the house. One asked her to unlock her phone. When she refused, he lifted her off the floor and she kicked him, at which point the second man grabbed her, ripping off her pajama top and the buttons.
While this was happening, some of the men “looked away,” and others “were unbothered,” she said.
Later, Kyagulanyi said, a gunman pulled her by the hair and banged her head against a pillar. Four men forced her down and sat on her. She said she passed out and was taken to the hospital at 1 a.m.
At Nsambya Hospital, in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, she was being treated Saturday for bruises and anxiety.
Escalating attacks
Kyagulanyi said she has no doubts that Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba — the army chief since 2024 and the president’s son — was responsible for the raid, following his repeated threats against her husband on X.
Col. Chris Magezi, a spokesman for the military, did not respond to a request for comment.
Wine’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, on Friday urged the international community “to demand immediate, verifiable guarantees” of Wine’s safety, citing the army chief’s “reckless” threats against the opposition leader even as police say Wine has not committed any crime.
Kainerugaba’s posts on X are often offensive, and he has targeted Wine in recent days, calling him a “baboon” and a “terrorist.” He often deletes his posts later.
Kainerugaba said this week that more than 2,000 of Wine’s supporters have been detained since the election. He also said he was operating with the powers of a commander in chief of the armed forces, authority vested in the president by law.
David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of Wine’s party, said Saturday that the NUP “is under attack,” describing the recent events as a “new phase of persecution.”
“Our leader is in hiding,” Rubongoya said. “Several other party leaders are either missing or under arrest.”
Disputed election
Uganda’s election was marred by a days-long internet shutdown and the failure of biometric voter identification machines that caused delays in the start of voting in areas, including in Kampala, the capital. Wine has also alleged that ballot boxes were stuffed in some areas seen as Museveni strongholds.
Museveni, who is a longtime U.S. ally on regional security, has accused the opposition of trying to foment violence during the voting.
In a statement Friday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Idaho Republican Jim Risch, urged the Trump administration to “reassess the U.S. security relationship with Uganda, beginning with a review of whether sanctions are warranted under existing authorities against specific actors,” including Kainerugaba.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has urged “restraint by all actors and respect for the rule of law and Uganda’s international human rights obligations.”
Ugandan security forces were a constant presence throughout the election campaign.
Wine said that authorities followed him and harassed his supporters, often using tear gas against them. He campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet for protection.
Museveni, 81, will now serve a seventh term that would bring him closer to five decades in power. His supporters credit him for the relative peace and stability that have made Uganda home to hundreds of thousands fleeing violence elsewhere in this part of Africa.
Muhumuza writes for the Associated Press.
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