Uganda’s opposition leader Robert Kygulani, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has accused the military sorrounding his home in Magere, Kampala, of gaining forceful entry into his house once again.
In a statement on X on Tuesday, January 3, Bobi Wine said that military officers were “now fully” occupying his entire home “INSIDE, outside, and around it.”
“We are still unable to assess the extent of the destruction caused to the house when they first broke it and vandalised it on 23rd January,” Wine said, adding that “neither have we been able to take stock of what items and documents the armed men seized from the house.”
According to the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader, none of his family members have been allowed to access the home since the attack happened in January 23, 2026.
During the attack, Wine — who remains in hiding — claimed that his wife, Barbara Kyagulani, was assaulted, and held at gunpoint by the military officers before they took away documents and electronic items.
However, the claims were denied by Uganda’s military chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
“My soldiers did not beat up Barbie [Bobi Wine’s] wife. First of all, we do not beat up women. They are not worth our time. We are looking for her cowardly husband not her,” Muhoozi said.
Huma Rights Watch speak
Ever since President Yoweri Museveni was declared winner of the January 15, 2026 elections by the Electoral Commission, Muhoozi has demanded Wine’s surrender to authorities, and even issued death threats against the pop star-cum-politician.
Consequently, Ugandan authorities have intensified a crackdown against top NUP leaders, with Human Rights Watch saying that mass arrest of NUP supporters.
“Uganda’s longstanding pattern of abuse against opposition has risen to alarming levels,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Ugandan government needs to stop cracking down on dissent and ensure that people with opposing views are safe.”
At around 11:30 pm on January 14, Ugandan soldiers detained Jolly Jackline Tukamushaba, NUP’s deputy president for Western Uganda, at a hotel in Muhanga, when they were finalising on documents needed for her participation in the elections the next day.
Patricia Ashaba, Tukamushaba’s daughter, told Human Rights Watch that seven armed men in military uniforms raided the hotel room that night and held them at gunpoint. “They told all of us, ‘Kneel down, and hands up, put your phones in front,’ and pointed guns at us,” Ashaba said.
The soldiers confiscated the election-related documents as well as money and ordered Tukamushaba to go with them, put her in a waiting van, and drove off with her. Ashaba has not heard from her mother since. Tukamushaba was unable to participate in elections the following day.
NUP Secretary-General David Lewis Rubongoya said on January 15 (election day) that a group of armed men had taken the party’s deputy president for Northern Uganda, Lina Zedriga Waru, from her home on the outskirts of Kampala.
The State has since denied detaining Zedriga.
