The High Court On Tuesday January 25th, 2021, ordered the military and vacate National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s home in Magere.
The order was issued by Justice Michael Elubu, who ruled that Bobi Wine’s home was not a gazetted detention centre and that if the state had any charges against him they should detain him at a police station, prison or other gazetted detention centres.
It’s now two days ever since then and so we had to find out how the family is doing.
The two, Bobi Wine and Barbie Kyagulanyi, who were traumatized by the 11 days of tension, intimidation and fear are apparently doing well, except they have certain concerns about their privacy and security.
Speaking to NTV Uganda on Tuesday, Barbie narrated the traumatizing ordeal she went through during the days they were put under house arrest, revealing that they had to sleep in turns so as to ensure their safety.
Barbie also narrates that ever since the police rained a CCTV camera that points directly into her bedroom, she and Bobi Wine have since been robbed of all privacy that a legally married couple must have.
Here below is what Barbie says;
“The soldiers came with mobile toilets, barricades and all sorts of trucks. At first we thought they were tightening security in the area because of the elections.
But when they stormed our compound that was when we got to know that it was real!
Our phones were switched on and confiscated, the CCTV cameras and TV networks were switched off too.
When I tried to go down to the garden to get some food for my people, the soldiers stopped me. They said I couldn’t go to the garden. That was when I knew that it was real.
As night fell, our entire compound became filled with soldiers walking around, speaking loudly in a strange language, smoking cigarettes. It was so scary. So we decided that we would sleep in turns, so as to ensure that they don’t harm us.
Bobi Wine would wake up say at 3:00AM and tell me ‘Please you can also keep watch as I get some sleep.
That was how it was for the 11 days we were under house arrest.”
Speaking about the deprivation of privacy, Barbie said that “Privacy was taken away from us long ago. Right at the corner to our home there is a police CCTV camera pointed directed at our house. That camera is so long that it looks into our bedroom!”
On whether she is happy now that the military have been ordered vacate, Barbie said that; “I’m not happy because they were not supposed to be here in the first place. In any case, if they had any charges against us this was not the place to incarcerate us. They should have taken us to court and to prison.
Well, the mother of four apparently doesn’t feel safe even after the military withdrew from her home because she knows they are being watched and she is concerned about her privacy, especially because of the CCTV camera and the helicopter that is always hovering around their home.
She is however grateful to her husband for flying their kids out of the country because they would have become emotionally and psychologically traumatized for life.
By John Kenny Adenya
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