Besigye was in the Kenyan capital for NARC party leader Martha Karua’s launch of her memoir, Against The Tide.
The government of Uganda on Wednesday, November 20 broke its silence after opposition leader Kizza Besigye was on Saturday, November 16 kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya.
The four-time presidential contender was last seen in Nairobi on Saturday. The executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, revealed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning that her husband was being held in a military detention in Kampala.
Besigye was in the Kenyan capital for NARC party leader Martha Karua’s launch of her memoir, Against The Tide. Byanyima made a passionate appeal to authorities to have the husband released.
Ugandan politicians who form part of the opposition Kizza Besigye (left) and Bobi Wine. /BOBI WINE
“I request the government of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately. He was kidnapped last Saturday while he was in Nairobi for Hon Martha Karua’s book launch. I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala.
“We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?” Byanyima posted on her X.
However, in an interview with Daily Monitor, a Uganda media outlet, Uganda’s Minister of ICT and National Guidance Chris Baryomunsi revealed that he was unaware of the abduction and that the state was establishing his whereabouts.
“I’m currently in Soroti as part of President Museveni’s entourage. I’m not aware that he is being held by the government. I’m still cross-checking with our security agencies. In any case, why would he be arrested? The government is not in the habit of arresting citizens and keeping them incommunicado forever,” he revealed.
“If he’s arrested then he will be arraigned in court and charged accordingly. However, we are also still cross-checking with our security agencies and colleagues in Kenya because we are told he had travelled there for a book launch before he disappeared.”
Several people, including the National Unity Platform (NUP) president, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, have condemned the circumstances under which the former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president went missing.
“Dr Kizza Besigye is a highly respected leader and it’s shocking that Kenya which used to be a safe haven for the Ugandan dissidents has now been turned into an operation ground for the dictator in Uganda. We demand for Dr Kizza Besigye’s unconditional release and promise to fight for his freedom like he has done so many times for ours,” Bobi Wine told NTV.
Besigye’s disappearance followed the July 23 arrest of 36 Ugandan activists associated with him in Kisumu, the lakeside city in Kenya close to the border.
The political activists were abducted and ferried back to Uganda where they were charged with treason and remanded to Kitalya Prison.
The activists, who were recently released on bail, pleaded not guilty to the charges and said they were attending a workshop when they were arrested. The 36 activists claimed to have been tortured during their detention.
Karua also demanded Besigye’s release and called out Uganda’s President Kaguta Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto to ‘come clean on his safety and whereabouts.’
