Charles Matovu

According to his official profile on the Parliament of Uganda website, Charles Matovu was born on 1 April 1985. He trained as an electrical engineer, the profession listed against his name in parliamentary records and in news reports at the time of his death. Details of his birthplace, schooling and family background have not been widely reported.

Matovu entered national politics as the National Unity Platform candidate for Busiro South, a constituency in Wakiso District made up of Sissa, Katabi, Kasanje and Bussi sub-counties and stretching from Nkumba to the Bussi and Sissa islands on Lake Victoria. In the January 2021 general election he faced the sitting National Resistance Movement member Peter Ssematimba, Democratic Party candidate Stephen Ssekigozi and independent Paul Owor, among others, and won the seat.

In the 11th Parliament (2021 to 2026) he served on the Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and on the Committee on Climate Change, sitting alongside fellow NUP members on both.

He sought re-election on 15 January 2026. During the campaign, in December 2025, NUP reported that he and members of his team had been attacked by men alleged to be wearing security uniforms, and that those injured were treated at Mengo Hospital. The Electoral Commission declared NRM candidate Kenan Opio the winner, with 36,497 votes to Matovu's 30,487. Matovu challenged the result in the High Court at Entebbe, alleging irregularities and non-compliance with electoral law. On 25 September 2026 the court dismissed his application to obtain further electoral materials for 102 polling stations, ruling that they had not been identified with sufficient precision. The substantive petition went to hearing before Justice Johnson Karemani on 16 October 2026 and was still undecided when he died.

Matovu's private and family life was not widely covered in the press. He was known publicly as a loyal member of the National Unity Platform, whose leaders described him at his death as a brother and comrade in the opposition movement.

Matovu developed a sudden health complication on the night of Monday 19 October 2026, according to what his family told the National Unity Platform, and was admitted to Lubaga Hospital in Kampala. NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya said that when he visited on the morning of Thursday 22 October, Matovu was critically ill and could neither speak nor open his eyes. He was transferred to Mulago National Referral Hospital for further investigation and died there later on 22 October 2026, aged 41. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Party president Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) announced the death on X that evening, calling it very shocking news and describing Matovu as a brother, comrade and fellow leader who had served Busiro South in the last parliamentary term. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Matovu belonged to the large intake of National Unity Platform legislators who entered Uganda's Parliament in 2021, the party's first general election. His single term for Busiro South, his committee work on agriculture, fisheries and climate change, and his determined legal challenge to the 2026 result form his public record. His death, days after the hearing of his petition began, left open questions about the future of the case.