From her quiet home in Indianapolis, 68-year-old Immaculate Nakawooya-Mutumba says she watches her life’s work in Uganda disappear—piece by piece. A retired Ugandan-American mother and grandmother who has lived in the United States for over 45 years, Nakawooya says she invested heavily in real estate back home, hoping to spend her final years in peace on her own soil.
But since mid-2022, she claims, her dream has turned into a nightmare of fraud, intimidation, and betrayal.
“I invested in several properties in Uganda with anticipation for comfortable aging and a decent end of life in my homeland,” she wrote in a letter addressed to Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, the President of the National Unity Platform (NUP).
“Regrettably, since July 2022, I’ve been caught in a contentious land-grab scheme of my estate—without any monetary compensation whatsoever.”
Nakawooya alleges that her former property-management lawyers from the Lwere & Lwanyaga firm orchestrated the grab through “manipulation, fraud, deceit and forgery.” A 2024 Uganda Police Forensics report, she says, confirmed some of the documents used in the transfers were forged.
Unable to travel due to poor health, Nakawooya says she has been fighting the case remotely, while her caretakers and agents in Uganda have faced harassment, arrests, and even death threats.
“My Kigo 20-year vegetation farm has been graded to the ground,” she wrote. “Six of my agents were jailed in June 2025 and falsely accused of trespass and malicious damage on land I have legally owned since 2007.”
She says her situation worsened Kawempe north MP and lawyer when Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola—of NUP—was hired to protect her property but instead “surrendered my land to adversaries without consent.”
According to Nakawooya, Nalukoola withdrew from her court cases without notice, retained key documents, and kept proceeds from land transactions she never approved. When she challenged him, she says he dismissed her as “a mentally sick woman.”
“Those words were meant to destroy my character,” Nakawooya laments. “He said, ‘I’m a high-profile lawyer, all my transactions are legal, nothing you can do.’”
Nalukoola, a seasoned human-rights lawyer has however not publicly responded to Nakawooya’s specific allegations.
A Party Under Scrutiny
Nakawooya’s letter praises Bobi Wine’s stated anti-corruption stance but also warns that NUP’s credibility risks being tainted if the party shelters individuals accused of misconduct.
“If such breaches of trust against fellow citizens are left unchecked, every landowner in Uganda is likely to become a victim,” she wrote.
Her words come at a time when NUP itself is battling allegations of bribery and favoritism during its just concluded vetting process for the 2026 elections.
Several aspirants recently claimed they were coerced to pay money—reportedly between UGX 10 million and 20 million—to secure party cards, only to be denied nomination later. One aspirant told the Sunday Monitor, “It is about who pays, not who the people want.”
Observers say the controversy has dented NUP’s “zero-tolerance to corruption” slogan—a principle Bobi Wine has repeatedly emphasized in his public rallies.
An Appeal for Justice
Nakawooya says she has compiled three years’ worth of evidence—court filings, forensics reports, correspondence, and payment records—to back her case. Her appeal is not only for her own restitution but for protection of all Ugandans from similar schemes.
“There are not enough guardrails,” she warns. “Caretakers are arrested, court cases are manipulated, titles are forged while we are abroad. I just want my land, my peace, and dignity restored.”
In closing her letter, she quoted Bobi Wine’s own lyrics:
“I am not your enemy… I am not an enemy of NUP… I am just a Ugandan woman sounding alarm before I become another victim.”
