The wife of Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine described how armed men forced their way into her home and attacked her as they demanded to know where he was.

Barbara Kyagulanyi, known affectionately as Barbie, told reporters gathered around her hospital bed that she did not cooperate with the dozens of men in military uniform who broke into her home on Friday night. She told them she didn’t know where her husband was, and she refused to unlock her mobile phone 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 January 15, 2026, presidential polls, with 71.6 per cent of the vote, according to official results. Wine’s National Unity Platform party, or NUP, took 24.7 per cent 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 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 pyjama 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 of Kampala, she was being treated for bruises and anxiety on Saturday, January 24, 2026.

Escalating attacks

Kyagulanyi said she has no doubts that General 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.

Colonel 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 tweets 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.