By Staff Writer

Ugandan musician Maggie Kayima, popularly known as Nabbi Omukazi, has opened up about one of the most difficult and deeply personal chapters of her life, revealing that she has continued to test HIV-negative years after being in a long-term relationship with the late Pastor Augustine Yiga, who was living with HIV.

Kayima says her latest HIV test, conducted as part of extensive blood work during a recent medical appointment in the United States, once again returned negative.

For her, the result brought back memories of a relationship that lasted almost a decade and a period of her life she says she still struggles to explain.

Kayima says she began dating Yiga around 2008. At the time, she did not know that the pastor was living with HIV.

According to her testimony, Yiga later became seriously ill while in South Africa. It was during that period, she says, that he disclosed his HIV status to her and told her that his CD4 count had fallen dangerously low.

Kayima said she immediately assumed that she, too, had contracted the virus because they had been together for years.

But when the couple returned to Uganda, they went to Mengo Hospital for HIV testing.

The results, according to Kayima, shocked them both.

Yiga tested positive.

Kayima tested negative.

Still struggling to believe the result, the two reportedly went to the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) for another test.

The results were the same.

Yiga was HIV-positive.

Kayima was HIV-negative.

The musician says Yiga was stunned by the results and struggled to understand how she could remain HIV-negative despite their long-term relationship.

She recalls him telling her that he now understood how “blessed and protected” she was.

Kayima says she subsequently travelled to South Africa, where she underwent another HIV test.

Again, the result was negative.

Her experience is consistent with the medical reality that HIV transmission is not automatic between sexual partners. Couples in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other HIV-negative are commonly described as serodifferent or “discordant” couples.

But for Kayima, the repeated negative results became more than a medical result. They became part of a personal faith journey.

She says she chose to remain with Yiga after learning his status rather than immediately walking away.

The relationship eventually ended, although Kayima has previously spoken about other difficulties within the relationship. Earlier reports quoted her saying she separated from Yiga after years together, while more recent accounts have provided additional details about the circumstances surrounding their eventual separation.

Yiga died in October 2020 after battling illness. The Daily Monitor reported at the time that the pastor, whose ministry was based in Kawaala, had died after a period of ill health.

Kayima says his death did not erase the words he had spoken to her years earlier.

Instead, they remained with her.

Now, years after his death and after yet another HIV test in the United States, Kayima says she remains HIV-negative.

Reflecting on her journey, she attributes her survival and continued health not only to what medical science can explain about HIV transmission, but also to her Christian faith.

“I just know that God has the final word,” is the message behind her latest testimony.

For Kayima, the story is not simply about HIV.

It is about a relationship that lasted years, a painful discovery, repeated medical tests, public speculation, loss and, ultimately, her belief that God carried her through circumstances she once feared would destroy her.

Her story also highlights an important medical reality: an HIV-positive person can have a long-term relationship with an HIV-negative partner without the partner necessarily acquiring the virus. HIV transmission depends on a number of factors, and effective HIV treatment can dramatically reduce the risk of sexual transmission.

For Kayima, however, the latest negative test has renewed a deeply personal conclusion.

After years of uncertainty, loss and repeated testing, she says she can only look back and give thanks.

“Thank You, God. You have been there all along.”