“Barbie Kyagulanyi Is The One Who Decides Everything In NUP” Former Spy Narrates How NUP Is Run By Bobi Wine’s Family

A former operative within President Yoweri Museveni’s government has disclosed what appears to be a familial influence within the National Unity Platform (NUP), outlining the involvement of Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine’s family members and close associates in steering the opposition party.

Acquiring the relatively obscure National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURDP) in 2019 and officially transforming it into the National Unity Platform (NUP) months before the 2021 general elections, Bobi Wine has emerged as a prominent figure in Ugandan opposition politics. While the NUP has established leadership structures, former spy Charles Rwomushana suggests that the significant decision-makers within the opposition organization are Bobi Wine’s close relatives and associates.

Rwomushana, a former chief of political intelligence for the Internal Security Organization (ISO), contends that Bobi Wine, along with his wife Barbie and brother Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu, leads NUP, alongside party Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya and Treasurer Benjamin Katana.

“Society has to interest itself in who rules because there are three layers of decision-making. The first one is Mrs. Kyagulanyi [Bobi Wine’s wife Barbra – or Barbie – Itungo]. The second is Nyanzi [Fred Ssentamu]. Then you have Lewis Rubongoya and Benjamin Katana at the operational level. The question is who influences Mrs. Kyagulanyi? Who influences Rubongoya and Benjamin Katana?” Rwomushana shared with NBS.

“That’s why you see there is this crisis that leads to the proliferation of [Joel] Ssenyonyi, while cutting off some people from critical committees.”

Bobi Wine’s NUP surpassed the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to become the primary opposition party. Before Christmas, Bobi Wine implemented the party’s first reshuffle in the parliamentary leadership, altering his shadow cabinet and rearranging committee chairpersons.

Bobi Wine replaced the leader of opposition in parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, with political novice Joel Ssenyonyi.Rwomushana, a former intelligence operative providing political analysis on various TV and radio stations, has previously asserted that Bobi Wine collaborates with Museveni.