WASHINGTON / KAMPALA — In a candid and emotional interview with FRANCE 24 aired on March 24, 2026, Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, made it clear: he plans to return home soon, even though he says his life remains in danger.
Speaking from Washington, D.C., just days after resurfacing following nearly two months in hiding inside Uganda, Bobi Wine told the French broadcaster: “I intend to go back to my country.”
He added firmly: “My fight is in Uganda. My work is in Uganda and my citizenship is in Uganda. I’m a Ugandan and I have to go back to my country.”
The National Unity Platform (NUP) president didn’t sugarcoat the risks. “I am still under threat,” he warned, repeating claims that President Yoweri Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, had publicly threatened his life. Bobi Wine recounted how Muhoozi allegedly confessed to killing 24 of his friends and said he wanted to make Bobi Wine “the 25th dead body.”
He described a terrifying period after the disputed January 2026 presidential election: his home was raided (on orders from Muhoozi, he says), his wife was assaulted and hospitalized, and security forces set up roadblocks across the country hunting for him. With help from ordinary Ugandans who risked their own safety — and even some insiders within the regime who opposed the leadership — he managed to escape on January 16 and stayed hidden for almost two months before quietly leaving the country.
Despite everything, Bobi Wine sounded determined. He rejected any idea of negotiating his safe return, saying: “I am not going to negotiate my freedom. I am supposed to be in Uganda as a free citizen, not as a person who must beg for my freedom.”
He used the platform to renew his call for international sanctions against President Museveni, his son Muhoozi, and other officials he accuses of violating human rights, subverting democracy, and undermining the rule of law.
“It is not about me, but about ourselves,” he said, speaking for an entire generation of young Ugandans who have grown up under Museveni’s 40-year rule. “There is a whole generation of talented and qualified young people and we must pave a way for that generation that must live not in dictatorship but in absolute democracy.”
The interview comes at a tense time. While Bobi Wine is now holding meetings on Capitol Hill and engaging the Ugandan diaspora in the U.S., his deputy Dr. Lina Zedriga is holding the fort for the NUP back home. Supporters at home and abroad see his international push as a smart survival strategy, but many are anxiously waiting for his promised return.
For now, Bobi Wine’s message from Washington is one of defiance mixed with hope: he’s not giving up the fight — and he insists he will continue it on Ugandan soil, no matter the risks.
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