Maggie Kayima, popularly known as Nabbi Omukazi, has opened up about a deeply personal chapter of her life, recounting her long-term relationship with an HIV-positive partner and the repeated tests that continued to return negative results.
She revealed that she recently underwent extensive blood tests after visiting her primary care doctor, with HIV among the tests conducted. To her surprise, the results were once again negative.
The result took her back to around 2008, when she became involved with a powerful man with whom she remained in a relationship for nearly a decade. She said she initially did not know that he was living with HIV.
According to her, the man later became seriously ill while in South Africa around 2011 and eventually disclosed his HIV status to her, revealing that his CD4 count had dropped dangerously low.
She said she immediately accepted that she could also be HIV-positive because they had been together for years. However, when they tested together at Mengo Hospital, his result came back positive while hers was negative.
Still unable to believe the results, they went to the Joint Clinical Research Centre for another test. The outcome remained the same: he was positive while Kayima tested negative.
She said his reaction to her results left a lasting impression on her, particularly because he appeared to struggle to understand how she could remain HIV-negative.
“Today I finally understand just how blessed and protected you are,” he reportedly told her, adding that he believed AIDS would never be what took her life.
Kayima said she sometimes wondered whether he had expected or even wanted her to test positive so they could share the same burden. However, she also came to understand that his reaction was rooted in fear that she would leave him after learning about his status.
She chose to stay.
She later travelled to South Africa and tested again, with the result once again coming back negative.
Maggie also recalled another difficult chapter of her life when she was imprisoned at Kigo Prison, where she said the harsh conditions left her severely unwell. Amid rumours that her illness could be connected to HIV, prison doctors reviewed her medical records and found that she was negative once again.
Years later, following the death of the man she loved from complications related to HIV, Kayima says those experiences have deepened her faith.
While acknowledging that HIV science explains the risks and mechanisms of transmission, she said her personal journey has also strengthened her belief that God has carried and protected her through some of the most difficult moments of her life.
“Through love. Through fear. Through South Africa. Through prison. Through rumours. Through loss. Through things that should have broken me. And somehow, I am still here,” she reflected.
She said she does not feel the need to understand everything anymore, but remains convinced that God has the final word.
“My heart has only one response: Thank You, God. You have been there all along,” she concluded.