Besigye was abducted 11 days ago while in Nairobi, Kenya for a book launch, and was driven by night to Uganda where he was charged with plotting to undermine national security and being in unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, which were all recovered in the Kenyan capital city.
Byanyima, who spilled the beans during an interview on Citizen TV‘s JKLive Show, revealed that Besigye had travelled to Nairobi in response to an invitation by a friend of his, NARC party leader Martha Karua for the launch of her memoir, Against The Tide.
The book launch was set to take place on Sunday, November 17, with Besigye arriving in Nairobi a day earlier. However, upon arrival, Besigye was reportedly invited by a British national to a meeting with business associates supposedly interested in supporting African political parties and their mass mobilization efforts.
Kizza Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima (left). /CHIMP REPORTS
Besigye, flanked by his party colleague, Haji Obeid Utale, went to the meeting location on Riverside Drive, Nairobi. It was from this point that everything went sideways for Besigye, according to his wife Byanyima.
Following a brief introduction to the people present, a supposed arrival by Kenya Police was announced through a knock on the door. Byanyima revealed that the Brit was accompanied by supposed investors who wanted to support African politics.
“The British national said he had a group of colleagues and friends and businesses who invest in Africa who wanted to support political parties and could support their mass mobilisation work and party activity,” she disclosed.
“So he was exploring this and he was invited to a meeting in Riverside and he went with his party colleague Haji Obeid Utale. They arrived there, entered the room and were being introduced to two people, the one he knew (Brit) and another he didn’t know….a knock on the door and it is announced that Kenya police have arrived.”
However, when the Brit answered the door, it turned out that there were eight men in plain clothes instead of the Kenya Police. Besigye could not make out who they were, only that they told him that he was under arrest.
According to Byanyima, Besigye was surprised when he noticed that the British national who had invited him to the meeting was carrying two guns and a box of money.
“In the room were this man and his friend with two guns and a box of money and the supposed police said ‘You are under arrest’ and Besigye said ‘Wait a moment I don’t know why this man came with two guns and a box of money; I did talk about fundraising but I wasn’t expecting this’,” Byanyima narrated.
Meanwhile, the British man would abandon Besigye as well as a stranger, his party colleague and the supposed policemen, before the politician could ask more questions. Both Besigye and Utale were then forcibly driven overnight for hundreds of kilometres towards the Ugandan border.
“Four of the men bundled him and his partner in a car and drove them the whole night towards the border of Uganda. They crossed into Uganda without stopping. It was clearly a well-planned operation,” she went on.
“Somewhere towards Nakuru, the four men who abducted them forgot and started talking in our language so Kizza said I wish you told us we spoke the same language, and that’s how they crossed them into Uganda to the military jail.”
She added that Besigye remains in good spirits despite the harsh conditions he is facing in prison which include sleeping on a floor. “He was charged in a military court, that’s wrong because he is a civilian and remanded in a civilian prison just to calm the anger in the public,” she added.
Byanyima’s fresh confession puts the Ugandan government in tricky territory given that not only did it deny that Besigye was abducted in Nairobi but it also shifted blame towards the Kenyan government, which had claimed that it was not involved in Besigye’s abduction.
