Wife of Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine in hospital after soldiers raid her house

The wife of Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine has been speaking to journalists from her hospital bed in Kampala, describing what she says was an overnight raid on her home by soldiers searching for her husband.

Barbra Itungo Kyagulanyi said she was strangled and held at gunpoint during the raid.

"One of the main reasons was to look for my husband because his phone has been home. I switched it on yesterday because there is a password I was looking for and then that was like at around 3[pm]. So, I think they got a signal of his phone and then they were sure he was home. But he had left his phone behind.”

Wine said in a post on X on Saturday that "hundreds of soldiers" raided his home in his absence, looting it and assaulting his wife. "They put my wife on gunpoint, asking her to reveal my whereabouts," he wrote. "They strangled her and insulted her."

Kyagulanyi said the soldiers physically assaulted her in an attempt to get her to give them information about her husband.

"[One of the men] held me by my hair, lifted me up, we have poles in the sitting room, and hit my head on the pole and slit my mouth. So, when he hit me, he pulled me down and sat me down. Then he pushed my head and I went down and they sat on me. I could feel four bodies seated on me. Then he said, will you give me the password? I said again in Runyankore, you have already done enough. You are not getting the password."

Bobi Wine went into hiding after last week’s presidential election. Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term in office - a result Wine denounced as “blatant theft.”

Post-election crackdown

Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who heads the country’s army, has vowed to hunt down Wine and kill him.

Kainerugaba said earlier this week that 30 opposition supporters have been killed since the election and 2,000 arrested.

"We have arrested more than 2,000 thugs that Kabobi thought he could use," wrote army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba on X, using his nickname for Wine. "So far, we have killed 30 NUP terrorists," he added, referring to Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform.

Police on Thursday detained a key ally of opposition figure Bobi Wine, accusing him of participating in bouts of violence in a remote part of central Uganda during last week's election.

Muwanga Kivumbi, a lawmaker who is a deputy president of Wine's National Unity Platform party, is likely to face criminal charges for his alleged role in violence in his constituency that left seven people dead, said police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke.

Wine’s lawyer has called on the United Nations and the international community to demand immediate, verifiable guarantees of Wine's safety to ensure he can return to his family without harm.

Observers said the election was marred by an internet shutdown lasting days and the repression of the opposition.

UN chief Antònio Guterres has said he is following the situation in Uganda with concern.