Fact Check: No Evidence Bobi Wine Bought $1.5 Million Mansion in Canada
A recent article by The Explorer online newspaper has claimed that Ugandan opposition leader and musician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, purchased a $1.5 million mansion in Canada using part of the National Unity Platform (NUP) fundraising money. However, a closer look at the facts shows the claim is false and unverified.
The property featured in The Explorer’s report is actually listed for sale by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada at CAD $8,895,000 — far above the alleged $1.5 million price tag. This price discrepancy was the first red flag.
NUP’s own fundraising records indicate that by July 2025, the party had collected just over UGX 1 billion (approximately USD $279,789), with a projected target of UGX 9 billion (USD $2.5 million) by the campaign’s end. Even if the fundraiser hit its full target and all the funds were diverted, the amount would still fall far short of the UGX 31.8 billion needed to purchase the property in question.
This is not the first time Bobi Wine has been the subject of such allegations. In previous years, viral social media posts falsely claimed he owned luxury mansions in the United States. Investigations by Africa Check found that those properties — including one in Boston and another in Tampa, Florida — were either modest homes unrelated to him or images digitally manipulated from unrelated real estate listings.
In this latest case, a reverse image search confirmed that the mansion photo used by The Explorer was taken directly from an online real estate listing. The article also relied on unnamed “sources” and an anonymous “political analyst observer,” hallmarks of disinformation content.
Notably, the byline belonged to a “Steve Mungereza,” a writer whose political coverage on the Explorer website is overwhelmingly critical of Bobi Wine and the NUP, with no comparable scrutiny of the ruling NRM party. No verifiable online profile for Mungereza could be found, raising further doubts about the credibility of the report.
There is currently no credible public record or reliable source confirming that Bobi Wine owns property in Canada. Allegations linking him to high-value overseas real estate remain unsubstantiated and fit a recurring pattern of politically charged misinformation.
Verdict: The claim that Bobi Wine bought a $1.5 million mansion in Canada is false and misleading.
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