FALSE: HON. DR ABED BWANIKA HAS NOT BEEN ADMITTED TO BUTABIKA.

THE CLAIM

A post on TikTok made by New Power Updates on 3rd March 2026, captioned “Kimanya Kabonera MP Abed Bwanika is undergoing swift recovery at Butabika mental hospital, where he is undergoing rehabilitation following his election loss in the 2026 polls”. The post has 6,171 views with 95 likes, 4 comments, 5 bookmarks and 1 share.

The claim sounds like a recovery update about Hon. Abed Bwanika with an assumption of hospitalisation. It uses emotionally softening language, though not providing official sources. 

The claim also implies that Hon. Abed is mentally unstable following the loss he encountered in the recent 2026 presidential and parliamentary elections. 

The Hon. Abed Bwanika is a Ugandan veterinarian, politician and pastor. He is the treasurer of the Democratic Front, a political party led by Hon. Mathias Mpuuga. He is the outgoing Member of Parliament for the Kimanya Kabonera constituency on the NUP ticket. 

THE VERIFICATION.

The claim that Kimanya Kabonera MP Abed Bwanika is undergoing swift recovery at Butabika mental hospital was subjected to verification, starting with the Infor verifier, an expert fact-checking tool, by inputting the claim statement for first-hand analysis.

Upon verifying the claim, I was able to review the content of  BBS TEREFAYINA  on YouTube of 12th March, 2026, in which Hon. Dr Abed Bwanika was addressing parliament about the Contract Farming Bill, 2023.

Courtesy photo: Hon. Dr. Abed Bwanika addressing parliament

In the video;

1. Parliament is deliberating on matters of national importance presided over by Rt Hon. Anita Annet Among.
2. The speaker then calls Hon. Abed Bwanika to take up the flow and respond to the Contract Farming bill, 2023. 
3. Hon. Abed Bwanika responds by withdrawing the Contract Farming Bill, 2023 and he his seconded by his fellow MPs.
4. He (Hon. Abed) gave a full report about the bill. 
5. The speaker then asks members to vote on a motion and after listening in to the responses, the speaker announces the result.

In order to get to the bottom of this whole matter, I contacted Hon. Lubega Mukaaku (Chairman, Democratic Front), a political party Hon. Abed Bwanika subscribes to, who said the claim is false. This contradicts the post claiming that he was recovering at Butabika Hospital.

Hon. Lubega Mukaaku dismissed the claim, saying it’s false information being spread by NUP propagandists and that the public shouldn’t pay attention to such. He said Hon. Abed Bwanika has not been admitted to any hospital and has been attending parliamentary sittings representing his constituency.

Additionally, I did an account background check of New Power Updates, the platform that posted the claim. The account shares the latest political updates of Bobi Wine, NUP, local and Global News and has a following of 29K followers and 305.8k likes, as seen in the picture below.

The posting history of New Power Updates shows that the page frequently posts/publishes unverified and misleading claims, particularly concerning NUP leaders, political events, local and global news events. Many posts on this account contain inaccurate information, claims and exaggerated headlines without supporting evidence. The account has a record of spreading misleading content, which raises concerns about its reliability as a source of factual information.

FACTS

Based on the available evidence of an official testimony from his political party leader and his public appearance in a parliamentary sitting, there is no verifiable support for the claim. Hon Abed Bwanika was not hospitalised at Butabika Hospital. The claim is misleading.

VERDICT

FALSE/MISLEADING: The claim, “Kimanya Kabonera MP Abed Bwanika is undergoing swift recovery at Butabika mental hospital, where he is undergoing rehabilitation following his election loss in the 2026 polls,’ is misleading. Based on the available evidence of an official testimony from his political party leader and his public appearance in a parliamentary sitting, there is no verifiable support for the claim. Hon Abed Bwanika was not hospitalised at Butabika Hospital.

This fact-check was produced by Alternative Digitalk with support from Debunk Media Initiative and BBC Media Action.