KAMPALA, Uganda — The wife of Uganda’s opposition leader Bobi Wine has broken her silence after a violent night raid on her home, describing how armed men forced their way inside, assaulted her and demanded to know her husband’s whereabouts, leaving her hospitalized with injuries and deep emotional trauma. Speaking from her hospital bed, Barbara Kyagulanyi — widely known as Barbie — offered a chilling account of an attack that has intensified fears of a sweeping crackdown following Uganda’s disputed presidential election.
Kyagulanyi told reporters on Saturday that she was alone at home on Friday night, apart from a guard at the front gate, when dozens of men in military uniform stormed the property. Her children were not in the house at the time. The men demanded to know where her husband, opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, was hiding. She said she told them she did not know and refused to cooperate further, even when they ordered her to unlock her mobile phone.
“They kept asking me where my husband was,” Kyagulanyi said, recounting the encounter in a steady but strained voice. She said she refused to unlock her phone, despite repeated threats. “I told them I didn’t know where he was.”
The intruders mocked and insulted her, questioning her decision to marry Bobi Wine, who has emerged as the most prominent challenger to President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda’s politics. Bobi Wine was one of seven candidates who contested last week’s presidential election, an election whose outcome he has rejected as fraudulent.
According to official results announced on Jan. 15, Museveni won the presidency with 71.6% of the vote, extending his rule for another term. Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform party secured 24.7% of the vote, a result Wine has dismissed as fake, saying the election was marred by widespread irregularities.
Since Museveni was declared the winner, Bobi Wine has been in hiding, saying he fears for his safety. He has said he is sheltering at an unknown location and has called on his supporters to pursue peaceful protests rather than violence.
There had already been a heavy security presence around the couple’s home in the days following the vote, with armed personnel stationed nearby. On Friday night, Kyagulanyi said, the men forced their way into the property, overwhelming the guard at the gate and flooding the compound.
Kyagulanyi managed to record parts of the intrusion on her phone. The video, later posted on X, showed armed men moving through the property and caused shock and outrage among many Ugandans. From her hospital bed, she said that when she first saw the “swarm of men” entering her home, she called her brother-in-law in panic and told him, “This is the end.”
Inside the house, the men spread out, searching rooms and demanding information. Kyagulanyi said two of them restrained her while the rest continued to search. One of the men demanded that she unlock her phone so they could inspect it. When she refused, she said, he lifted her off the floor.
“I kicked him,” she said, describing the moment she resisted. At that point, she said, another man grabbed her from behind, ripping off her pajama top and tearing off the buttons.
As the struggle unfolded, Kyagulanyi said the reactions of the men around her varied. Some, she said, “looked away,” while others “were unbothered” by what was happening. None intervened to stop the assault.
The violence escalated. Kyagulanyi said a gunman later grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against a pillar. She said four men then forced her down to the ground and sat on her, pinning her body under their weight.
“I passed out,” she said.
She regained consciousness later and was taken to Nsambya Hospital in Kampala at around 1 a.m. Doctors there treated her for bruises and anxiety. On Saturday, she remained under medical observation, visibly shaken as she recounted the events to journalists gathered around her bed.
The attack on Kyagulanyi has become a flashpoint in Uganda’s already tense post-election environment. Opposition figures say it reflects an escalating pattern of intimidation, arrests and violence targeting critics of the government and supporters of the National Unity Platform.
Kyagulanyi said she has no doubts about who she believes was responsible for the raid. She directly accused Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the army chief since 2024 and the son of President Museveni, saying the attack followed a series of threats he had made against her husband on social media.
In recent days, Kainerugaba has repeatedly targeted Bobi Wine online, using inflammatory language and accusing him of being a security threat. He has described Wine using insults such as “baboon” and “terrorist,” often deleting the posts afterward. Kainerugaba has also claimed that thousands of opposition supporters have been detained since the election.
The Ugandan military did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the raid on the Kyagulanyi home or the allegations leveled by Kyagulanyi and other opposition figures.
Bobi Wine’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, has warned that his client’s life is in danger and has urged the international community to demand “immediate, verifiable guarantees” of his safety. He has described the army chief’s statements and actions as reckless, noting that police have not accused Bobi Wine of committing any crime.
Within the National Unity Platform, leaders say the party is facing what they describe as a coordinated campaign of persecution. David Lewis Rubongoya, the party’s secretary-general, said on Saturday that the attack on Kyagulanyi was part of a broader pattern.
“Our leader is in hiding,” Rubongoya said. “Several other party leaders are either missing or under arrest.”
The disputed election that set off the current crisis was marked by widespread disruption. Authorities imposed a dayslong internet shutdown that cut off access to social media and messaging platforms. In many areas, biometric voter identification machines failed, delaying the start of voting, particularly in urban centers such as Kampala that are seen as opposition strongholds.
Bobi Wine has alleged that ballot boxes were stuffed in some areas and that the vote tallying process was manipulated in favor of Museveni. Museveni and his supporters have rejected those claims, accusing the opposition of attempting to foment violence and undermine stability.
Throughout the election campaign, Ugandan security forces maintained a constant and highly visible presence. Bobi Wine said authorities followed him closely, restricted his movements and repeatedly used tear gas against his supporters. At rallies, he often wore a flak jacket and helmet, a stark symbol of the hostility surrounding the campaign.
President Museveni, now 81 years old, will serve a seventh term in office, extending his rule to nearly five decades since he first came to power in 1986. His supporters credit him with bringing relative peace and stability to Uganda and positioning the country as a haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring states.
Critics, however, argue that Museveni’s long tenure has come at the cost of democratic freedoms, with increasing militarization of politics, restrictions on the media and harsh treatment of opposition figures.
The attack on Kyagulanyi has drawn condemnation from international actors as well. The United Nations secretary-general has urged restraint by all sides and called for respect for the rule of law and Uganda’s international human rights obligations.
In the United States, senior lawmakers have called on the administration to reassess its security relationship with Uganda and to consider whether sanctions are warranted against specific individuals accused of human rights abuses, including members of the military leadership.
For many Ugandans, the image of the opposition leader’s wife describing her assault from a hospital bed has become a powerful symbol of the country’s political moment — one marked by fear, anger and uncertainty about what lies ahead.
As Kyagulanyi recovers, Bobi Wine remains in hiding, and opposition supporters say arrests and intimidation continue. The coming days are likely to test Uganda’s political institutions and its commitment to peaceful resolution of disputes, as pressure mounts both at home and abroad for accountability and restraint.
For now, Kyagulanyi says she is focused on healing, even as she worries about her husband’s safety and the future of the country. Her account of that night — the “swarm of men,” the violence, and the words she spoke in fear, “This is the end” — has resonated deeply in a nation still grappling with the fallout of a bitterly contested election.
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