Bobi Wine decries persecution as crackdown hits opposition deputies

KAMPALA, Uganda

Uganda's opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, who is still in hiding, has said that his home remains under siege.

He said the current regime is trying to hunt him down.

Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, also revealed that three out of his four deputy presidents--the arrangement in the run-up to the January 15, 2026, presidential elections--are in detention.

The most recent is his Deputy President for the Central Region, Muwanga Kivumbi, who was arrested on Thursday following allegations that he hired armed youths during the official tallying of votes.

Authorities claim that the youths were armed with pangas and wanted to disrupt the official Electoral Commission's duty of vote counting and announcement of results.

"My Deputy President for Central Region, Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi was today [Thursday] arrested and he's currently being held at Kira Division Police," Bobi Wine wrote via the social media platform X.

He explained that his Deputy President for Northern Uganda, Dr Lina Zedriga Waru, is still missing after she was abducted from her home on the day Ugandans went to the polls.

His Deputy President for Western Uganda, Jolly Jacklyn Tukamushaba, he said, is still missing, having been abducted from Rukiga District a day prior to the elections.

The musician-cum-politician said what is happening in his country is persecution.

"As the persecution intensifies, may we remain rooted in hope and faith, that our struggle--the Ugandan struggle--will end in victory."

Bobi Wine recently said that his house has been under surveillance by police and the military and his compound was besieged at least since the night of election day.

Though he managed to escape, he says that his wife Barbie Kyagulanyi and his people are still under effective house arrest and that the military had blocked food from reaching them.

On January 17, 2026, Uganda Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Simon Byabakama announced incumbent President Yoweri Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) the winner of the poll results with 7,944,772 votes (71.65 percent).

Bobi Wine of the National Unity Platform (NUP) came second after garnering 2,741,238 votes, representing 24.72 percent of the total valid votes cast.

The other six candidates split the remaining percentage amongst themselves. The six are James Nandala Mafabi, Frank Bulira Kabinga, Robert Kasibante, Joseph Mbirizi, Maj Gen (Rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu, and Mubarak Munyagwa.