According to the victim’s wife’s account, Kizza Besigye was abducted during a book launch in Kenya over the weekend, brought to Uganda, and is being imprisoned in a military cell in the country’s capital; Kampala.
She made this known via a post on X. “I request the govt of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately,” Winnie Byanyima tweeted.
“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” she added.
While the police denies any involvement, a statement from an army spokesperson suggest that the opposition leader is likely being detained.
“As police we don’t have him, so we can’t make any comment,” Ugandan police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters.
In contrast, a report by the BBC, notes that the Ugandan Army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye disclosed to the Uganda Radio Network agency that “he would be arraigned at a court later.”
He however, did not explicitly admit the military’s involvement in the case.
The party’s members, in anticipation of his appearance, had assembled at Kampala’s Makindye military court, as per a report by the Monitor.
36 members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, which Kizza Besigye leads, were arrested by Kenyan police in July and sent back to Uganda, where they were accused of terrorism-related offenses, the Reuters’ report revealed.
The FDC is one of the major opposition parties in the country and under the political bloc, Kizza Besigye, has run for presidency four times.
He has however been unable to oust the current leader of the East African country Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.
