Sarah Nantumbwe Ddamulira, the wife of missing National Unity Platform (NUP) supporter John Ddamulira, has died after spending nearly five years searching for answers about her husband’s disappearance.
The news was announced on Saturday by NUP Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya, through his official X account.
“Sadly, Sarah passed on this morning. Like many family members of those who disappeared, she spent the last five years moving from one place to another in search of her husband. It is heartbreaking that she has died without receiving any answers,” Rubongoya said.
John Ddamulira reportedly disappeared on November 21, 2020, after he was allegedly abducted from his shop at Kisekka Market in Kampala. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Nantumbwe’s death adds to the growing list of relatives of missing opposition supporters who have died before learning the fate of their loved ones.
Her passing comes amid continued uncertainty surrounding several supporters of the National Unity Platform who vanished during and after the tense period leading up to the 2021 general elections.
A similar tragedy occurred in November 2025 when Monica Nabukenya Kibalama, 38, the wife of longtime NUP supporter John Bosco Kibalama, was found dead in her bathroom at her home in Seeta-Kiwalimu, Magere.
Kibalama disappeared on June 3, 2019, while at his workplace on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala. His Toyota Prado was later recovered abandoned along the Gayaza–Kampala Road. Witnesses alleged that armed men forced him into a Toyota Hiace van before he vanished.
Earlier this year, Kibalama’s father also died without learning what had happened to his son.
Since the emergence of the People Power movement in 2019, which later transformed into the National Unity Platform, party leaders have repeatedly raised concerns about supporters they say were abducted or forcibly disappeared by security agencies.
Although a number of individuals initially reported missing later resurfaced in detention centres, courts, or were eventually released, several cases remain unresolved, leaving families without closure years later.
The issue continues to be a major concern for the opposition party, whose leaders and activists have also faced arrests, detention and prosecution over the years. Among those who have spent time in detention are NUP deputy spokesperson Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, head of security Achileo Kivumbi, and party president Robert Kyagulanyi’s chief civilian bodyguard, Edward Ssebuufu, popularly known as Eddie Mutwe.
Funeral and burial arrangements for Sarah Nantumbwe Ddamulira are yet to be announced.
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