Uganda’s Minister of Information, Communications Technology and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, has urged National Unity Platform (NUP) leader, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, who is in hiding, to return home, arguing that the state was not looking for him as reports suggest.
Mr Kyagulanyi, who challenged President Museveni in the recently-concluded presidential polls but finished second, escaped from his home in Magere, Wakiso District, on January 16 following a night military raid.
He said security had planned to arrest him following the January 15 polls, whose results he has rejected.
‘There’s no need for him to be in hiding. Nobody wants him. He’s not under pursuit by the police or the army. I’m now speaking as the government of Uganda. He’s free to come from wherever he’s hiding. He should return to his home, be calm and observe law and order. He should stop the drama and theatrics, trying to cause a story where there’s no story. The presidential elections and parliamentary elections are now done. We are now focusing on the remaining few elections to complete the process, and we move on with delivering our manifesto, which we pledged to Ugandans,’ Dr Baryomunsi told NBS TV on Sunday evening.
According to the minister, Mr Kyagulanyi “incited his supporters to look for the vote, protect it and demand it.”
So, how can he go to demand his vote from a bush or wherever he’s hiding? We know where he is, and he’s just safely there, but it’s just cowardice. He can go to the courts of law if he thinks he has evidence that he was rigged. In my own district, Kanungu, he garnered 12,000 votes, which is a big percentage, yet he didn’t even have agents…He has nothing to tell his supporters. He just created a wrong feeling that he was getting stronger, and yet when he led the opposition in the last five years, he could not persuade anybody. Instead of mobilising Ugandans, he was rather creating conflicts within his own party. He never endeared himself to people in places where he had no support,” he added.
The minister also said the police and military presence at My Kyagulanyi’s home is to monitor “the kind of visitors who go thetre and the kind of interaction” they engage in.
However, Mr Baryomunsi’s statement contradicts President Museveni’s son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who said they were looking for Mr Kyagulanyi, whom he described as a ‘coward.’
Gen Muhoozi, who is widely seen as the heir apparent to the Ugandan presidency, also refuted reports that UPDF soldiers beat up Mr Kyagulanyi’s wife, Barbra Itungo, during another night raid at Mr Kyagulanyi’s home by the military on January 23, 2026.
‘My soldiers did not beat up Barbie…Kabobi’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,’ Gen Muhoozi who acts as the Chief of Defence Forces posted on X in the wee hours of Monday morning.
The electoral commission declared President Museveni the winner of the disputed elections with 7,946,772 votes, representing 71.65 per cent of the total valid votes cast, securing him a seventh consecutive term in office. Mr Kyagulanyi was given 2,741,238 votes (24.72 per cent) in his second attempt to dislodge the former guerrilla leader who has been in power since 1986.
Mr Kyagulanyi rejected the results, describing them as “fake” and claiming they have “zero backing”. His rejection is based on several claims of systemic fraud and state-led repression. According to him, there was ballot stuffing countrywide and “cooked up” figures by the Justice Simon Byakama-led electoral commission following the widespread failure of Biometric Voter Verification Kits, which forced a resort to manual registers.
Following the polls, several arrests and night raids have been conducted at Mr Kyagulanyi’s home and at his supporters’.
Speaking from her hospital bed on Saturday afternoon, Ms Itungo said the assailants who descended on her at around 10 pm on January 23 broke windows and the door before making their way into the house. Ms Itungo accused the attackers of having molested her. She said one of them had ripped her night garments apart.
‘He went back behind me.I was wearing a biker, and on top of it I was wearing a knight shirt. He held the trousers of the nightie and pulled me up. He held and then pulled the shirt of the nightie from the back. The buttons of the shirt broke, and he stayed with my shirt. I was forced to go and sit in a corner. Some of them were unbothered. Others looked the other way,’ she said.
Ms Itungo said the rough treatment she was subjected to was precipitated by her refusal to acquiesce to a demand to give the assailants the password to her mobile phone handset. The attackers went away with mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. Ms Itungo said she suspected that the attack in which she and all the people in the compound suffered severe beatings was possibly aimed at breaking her husband’s spirit and compelling him to come out of hiding.
‘I think the intention was to break Bobi’s spirit so that he comes out of hiding, but I encourage him to stay strong. He should not come out until it is safe,’ she said.
Ms Itungo said she also suspects that the raid in which two of their dogs were shot and killed could also be about planting evidence to set the ground for bringing trumped-up charges against her husband. ‘They could have planted things in our home to come up with claims that my husband is involved in acts of terror,’ she said.
The raid on Bobi Wine’s abode came hours after Mr Muhammad Muwanga-Kivumbi, one of NUP’s top honchos, was remanded to custody.
The NUP leadership is already under a lot of pressure following the detentions of Ms Jolly Tukamushaba, the party’s Deputy President for western Uganda, and Lina Zedriga, the Deputy President for northern Uganda. Critics say the arrests and dusk raid on Bobi Wine’s abode is intended to have a chilling effect on the party, its members, and planned operations.
The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, however, said the party will not cower to such intentions.