Opposition leader's wife describes attack by armed men in her home

Armed men in military uniform broke into Barbara Kyagulanyi’s home in Kampala on Friday night and attacked her as they demanded to know where her husband, opposition leader Bobi Wine, was, she told reporters from her hospital bed on Saturday.

Kyagulanyi, known affectionately as Barbie, said she refused to cooperate with the dozens of intruders and refused their demands to unlock her mobile phone. She was treated for bruises and anxiety at Nsambya Hospital after the assault, which she recorded on her phone.

The attack marks an escalation in harassment of Uganda’s opposition following the contested January 15 election. Wine, who rejected the official results as fraudulent, has been in hiding since President Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner with 71.6% of the vote.

Barbara Kyagulanyi said she called her brother-in-law as armed men broke into her Kampala home on Friday night and told him, “This is the end.” She was alone in the house when dozens of men in military uniform forced their way inside, demanding to know where her husband, opposition leader Bobi Wine, was.

Kyagulanyi, known affectionately as Barbie, refused to cooperate. She would not unlock her mobile phone despite their demands, she told reporters from her hospital bed on Saturday.

Two men held her while the others searched the house. When one man asked her to unlock her phone and she refused, he lifted her off the floor. She kicked him, and another man grabbed her, ripping off her pajama top and buttons. A gunman pulled her by the hair and banged her head against a pillar. Four men forced her down and sat on her.

She passed out and was taken to Nsambya Hospital in Kampala at 1 a.m., where she was treated for bruises and anxiety. Kyagulanyi had recorded the intruders on her phone. The video, posted on X, showed the men forcing their way through her home.

Wine’s contested election and hiding

Wine, the most prominent of seven candidates who challenged President Yoweri Museveni in the January 15 election, has been in hiding since Museveni was declared the winner with 71.6% of the vote according to official results. Wine’s National Unity Platform party, or NUP, took 24.7% of the vote.

Wine rejected the election results as fraudulent and alleged that ballot boxes were stuffed in areas seen as Museveni’s strongholds. The election was marred by a dayslong internet shutdown and the failure of biometric voter identification machines that caused delays in voting, including in Kampala. Wine called for peaceful protests, and his lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, urged the international community to “demand immediate, verifiable guarantees” of his safety.

Threats from the army chief

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. Kainerugaba has made repeated threats against Wine on X, calling him a “baboon” and a “terrorist,” often deleting the posts later.

Kainerugaba said this week that over 2,000 of Wine’s supporters have been detained since the election. Col. Chris Magezi, a spokesman for the military, did not respond to a request for comment.

David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of Wine’s party, said on Saturday that 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.”

International response

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, 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 urged “restraint by all actors and respect for the rule of law and Uganda’s international human rights obligations.”

Museveni, 81, will now serve a seventh term. His supporters credit him for the relative peace and stability that has made Uganda home to hundreds of thousands fleeing violence elsewhere in Africa.