Africa-Press – Uganda. The Secretary General of the National Unity Platform (NUP), David Lewis Rubongoya, has announced the death of Mzee Ibrahim Kabugo, father of long-missing People Power activist John Bosco Kibalama, describing his passing as deeply painful and tragic.
In a statement shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday, Rubongoya said Mzee Kabugo passed away having never reunited with his son, who was abducted nearly six years ago and remains missing to date.
“Mzee Ibrahim Kabugo passed on (Saturday). He was the father of Johnbosco Kibalama, the People Power coordinator who was abducted on June 3, 2019 and is missing to-date,” he wrote.
“I last met him at the burial of Kibalama’s wife in November last year, and he was evidently in great physical and emotional pain. He longed so much to see his son again — which he said was his only remaining wish in life. It is most unfortunate that it hasn’t come to pass. May his soul rest in peace.”
John Bosco Kibalama, an accountant by profession with British American Tobacco, was formerly affiliated with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) before defecting to the People Power Movement, which later evolved into the National Unity Platform.
Prior to his disappearance, Kibalama had expressed interest in contesting for the Busiro North parliamentary seat, a constituency long associated with former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya.
Following his political ambitions and active involvement in opposition mobilization, reports indicate that he began receiving anonymous phone calls warning him to abandon his aspirations.
The threats reportedly intensified after the August 15, 2018 Arua Municipality by-election, in which Kibalama played a role in mobilising support for opposition candidate Kassiano Ezati Wadri.
Wadri’s victory in that election was widely seen as a turning point in Uganda’s opposition politics.
Kibalama was last seen on June 3, 2019, at his workplace along Lumumba Avenue in Kampala. His vehicle, a Toyota Prado, was later found abandoned along the Gayaza Road.
Witnesses reported that armed men abducted him and bundled him into a Toyota Hiace van — a vehicle type that has frequently been linked to abduction cases in the country.
Since his disappearance, state agencies have issued contradictory statements regarding his whereabouts.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has consistently denied holding him, maintaining that Kibalama is “alive and outside the country.”
The family’s suffering was compounded by the death of Kibalama’s wife, Monica Nabukenya Kibalama, who was found dead in her bathroom on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Her body was discovered by one of her eight-year-old twin children at their home in Seeta Kiwalimu, Magere.
While the circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear, reports showed that she had been battling diabetes and high blood pressure, though she was reportedly on the path to recovery at the time of her death.
