Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine with Wife Barbie Itungo
Why Bobi Wine Says His Wife Was Hospitalised After a Night Raid
Bobi Wine says a military night raid on his home left his wife hospitalised. He calls it a politically motivated act ahead of the 2026 election.
Published:
January 24, 2026 at 3:59:01 PM
Modified:
January 24, 2026 at 6:58:13 PM
Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, claims that a violent overnight raid on his home left his wife hospitalised. The National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate says soldiers stormed his compound in Magere, Wakiso District (just outside Kampala) on Friday night, assaulting his wife Barbra Itungo Kyagulanyi during the incursion, according to Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper. Kyagulanyi himself was not captured he has been in hiding but he alleges the raid was politically motivated as Uganda approaches the aftermath of a tense 2026 general election
What Bobi Wine says happened in the raid
Kyagulanyi detailed a harrowing account of the night raid. He says hundreds of intruders in military gear forced their way into his house at around 10 p.m., using ladders to scale walls and hammers to break doors and windows. “Most were dressed in Special Forces Command (SFC) uniforms, while others wore regular army fatigues or plain clothes.
Many appeared drunk,” he recounted. Once inside, the soldiers ransacked the home, allegedly smashing walls and searching every room, even the ceiling, in a hunt for the absent opposition leader. Kyagulanyi said the intruders looted valuables, seizing cash, important documents, and electronic devices from phones and laptops to the family’s internet router and CCTV system.
During the chaos, Bobi Wine’s wife Barbra (Barbie) Itungo was confronted at gunpoint. According to Kyagulanyi, the soldiers demanded she reveal his whereabouts and tried to force her to unlock her phone. When she refused, the attackers strangled and insulted her, at one point partially stripping her and taking photographs as a form of humiliation.
“They… ordered her to remove her password. She refused. They strangled her and insulted her,” Kyagulanyi said, describing how his wife was eventually rushed to hospital, where she remains under care for “physical and psychological trauma”.
A household security guard and a maid were also beaten during the raid, he added. Despite the ordeal, Kyagulanyi vowed to remain defiant in his political struggle.
Witnesses in the neighborhood back up parts of Kyagulanyi’s story. Neighbours reported seeing a convoy of about eight military vehicles without license plates entering the area around 10 p.m. on Friday. “Several heavily armed soldiers, mostly from the elite SFC, were aboard… Most of them wore face masks,” one resident told local media. These accounts of masked troops and unmarked trucks suggest a coordinated security operation targeting the politician’s home.
Raid amid a post-election crackdown
This incident comes amid heightened political tension in Uganda following a disputed general election on January 15, 2026. President Yoweri Museveni, 81, who has ruled for nearly 40 years, was declared the winner with about 71–72% of the vote, while Bobi Wine officially placed second with roughly 25%. Kyagulanyi and his NUP party rejected the results as fraudulent, alleging ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. He fled into hiding on January 16 after an earlier security raid on his residence, appearing only in sporadic online statements to denounce the election outcome.
Since the vote, the opposition says authorities have carried out a widespread crackdown. Kyagulanyi claims that hundreds of his supporters have been arrested, abducted or even killed in the weeks around the election.
The government, for its part, accuses Bobi Wine’s followers of inciting unrest during the polls, an allegation the opposition denies. Uganda’s military chief, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (President Museveni’s son), announced on social media that security forces had detained 2,000 opposition supporters and “killed 30 NUP terrorists” in operations following the election.
“Most NUP terrorist leaders are in hiding. We shall get them all,” Muhoozi wrote in one post, referring to Bobi Wine’s party.
The United Nations has expressed alarm at the reports of arrests and violence, urging Ugandan authorities to show restraint and respect human rights.
Bobi Wine’s claims about the raid on his home underscore the perilous climate for opposition figures. In recent days, several of his political allies have been detained or disappeared. For example, NUP official Muwanga Kivumbi, an elected MP and one of Kyagulanyi’s regional deputies, was arrested and charged with terrorism, while two other senior NUP members went missing around election day in unexplained abductions.
Kyagulanyi, 43, remains in an undisclosed location as he evades capture. Observers note that President Museveni appears intent on quashing dissent as he secures another term with some speculating he is grooming his son Muhoozi as a successor.
This story was first reported by Uganda’s Daily Monitor
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