A long-standing domestic conflict between Kampala University founder Prof. Badru Dungu Kateregga and his wife, Jolly Kateregga, has now exploded into the public eye. The dispute escalated this week with new allegations of physical assault and a fierce battle over university control and property ownership.
Jolly, who currently chairs the university’s Board of Trustees and formerly served as its finance director, now faces public accusations from her husband. Prof. Kateregga claims that she physically attacked him during a domestic incident in September 2023. “This scar isn’t just from an argument—it’s from an ambush,” he told journalists during a press conference at the university’s main campus. “She wants to wipe me out and take everything I’ve worked for.”
The couple married in 2012 and once appeared united in both personal and professional life. However, their broken relationship has now dragged emotional and institutional wounds into the public arena.
Jolly firmly rejected the accusations. She called them false and claimed that her husband is using them to damage her image and remove her from the university’s leadership. “This is a cruel twist of our story,” she told the Daily Monitor. “I’ve poured my life and loyalty into building something with him—only to face these accusations. It’s heart-breaking.”
She said the tension between them escalated in late 2023 after Prof. Kateregga fell seriously ill. According to Jolly, she personally managed his medical care, moving him from Georgina Clinic to Aga Khan Hospital and later to IHK, where doctors performed surgery. “After he began to recover, he refused to return home,” she recalled. “That’s when the accusations started. Even our children thought I had poisoned him, but doctors ran tests and cleared me.”
Prof. Kateregga insists the relationship soured when Jolly allegedly pressured him to revise his will. He claims she wanted him to exclude his older children from a previous marriage and leave everything to her and their children. “She asked me to strike out my older children,” he said. “That’s when I realized this wasn’t about love—it was about legacy.”
He also disputed her claim of helping found Kampala University. According to him, Jolly enrolled as a student in 2009, six years after he launched the institution. “She came in as a student, not a founder,” he said. “I started Kampala University in 2003. She hadn’t even established her career at that point.”
One of the major points of contention involves their residence in Buziga. Prof. Kateregga says he owned the property before they married and later added her to the land title to offer her security. He now claims she used that as leverage to push him out. “I added her to protect her,” he explained. “Instead, she used it to exclude me from my own home.”
Jolly denies locking him out of the Buziga house and maintains that the property belongs to both of them. She says she felt blindsided when he made the accusation during a university graduation ceremony. “That announcement came out of nowhere,” she said. “Since then, he has removed me from all university matters.”
She also accused Prof. Kateregga of publicly defaming her across borders. “He traveled to Kenya and other places spreading stories about me,” she claimed. “Yet I’m the one who helped rescue Kampala University from a Shs6 billion debt.”
Prof. Kateregga added that Jolly graduated from the university while still owing tuition fees, but he overlooked that at the time due to his affection for her. Now, he believes she is attempting to isolate his children from previous relationships to control his legacy. “I have more than 18 children,” he said. “She only wants hers acknowledged. That’s not love—that’s control.”
As the feud intensifies, it risks shaking the foundation of both their personal lives and the leadership of Kampala University, one of Uganda’s most prominent private institutions. “She can keep spinning her version,” Prof. Kateregga said during the April 15 briefing. “But what happened to me is real, and I won’t be silenced.”
