Barbie Kyagulanyi, wife of National Unity Platform (NUP) President Robert Kyagulanyi has come out to give her account of how she was blocked from attending an event she was invited to within Uganda Christian University, (UCU) Mukono.
According to a long Facebook post shared by Barbie, she was supposed to be in the University auditorium by 10:00 am.
In the post, Barbie reveals that she received her invitations physically from a couple of students.
“After receiving a number of emails requesting for a physical meeting, on Thursday 20th Jan 2022, a group of ladies from Uganda Christian University Mukono physically carried an invitation for me to be a guest at an awareness event themed, “Combating STDS once and for all, an AIDS and STDs free Uganda,” was supposed to discuss the implications of STDs on young women. A few days later, a program was shared with me,” she posted.
She went on and explained that even on the day of the event, she got a call confirming that indeed the event still stood.
“Thursday 25th on the day of the event, at 8 am, I was called and told that the program still stood. By 10:15 am, I was parked just a few meters away from Nkoyoyo Hall,” she noted.
Barbie said that she was very shocked when she was informed that she was unwelcome to the event.
“While I got out of the car to make my way to the hall, a group of this event’s organizers approached me with shocking news, saying that I was unwelcome to the event. They gave me different accounts about who gave the orders of my exclusion on the last minute,” she said.
She added that even the main sponsors of the event, Uganda Aids Commission, had already started pulling down their backdrops from the stage in protest saying that they cannot imagine her seated on a platform with their backdrops in the background.
According to Barbie, students on the team that had invited her said they had received a call from one of the top heads of the institution with a warning that they faced expulsion if they let her speak.
Barbie further revealed that she was forced to leave the university.
“To you, the 500 students from 36 Universities who attended this event, I saw you from a distance but I was forced to leave the university compound for the sake of the continuation of the program.
“This is not the first time I have been asked to leave public places with no proper explanation. The habit of making us unwanted, our continued exclusion, and the suffocating of our voices and views on issues affecting our young people should stop! We are role models to many of your children and it is in your interest to let them learn from us,” she noted.