Kizza Besigye’s wife says he was arrested in Nairobi and is being held in a Kampala prison and is calling for his immediate release.
Prominent Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has been kidnapped in neighboring Kenya and taken to Uganda’s military prison, his wife has announced.
In a post on X, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), called on the Ugandan government to immediately release her husband.
Byanyima said he was kidnapped last Saturday while visiting Kenya’s capital Nairobi to attend another politician’s book launch event.
“I have been reliably informed that he is currently in a military prison in Kampala,” she wrote. “We, his family and his lawyer, want to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military prison?”
The Ugandan government and military have not commented on the incident.
One of Besigye’s lawyers said he was scheduled to appear in a military court on Wednesday.
“The latest information we have is that Besigye is in a cell in Kampala and the military is planning to court-martial him today,” Elias Lukwago told AFP, citing a military source. “There is,” he said.
“We have not yet proven the charges against him,” he added.
Ugandan police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters that police did not know the suspect and could not comment on his whereabouts.
Kenya’s foreign affairs chief secretary, Korir Singoei, told local media that Kenya was not involved in the alleged incident.
In July, Kenyan authorities arrested 36 members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, one of Uganda’s main opposition groups.
They were then deported to Uganda, where they were charged with “terrorism”-related charges.
Besigye has been arrested numerous times over the years. He once served as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s personal physician during the rebel-led war, but later became an outspoken critic and political opponent.
He has faced Museveni, who has ruled the East African country since 1986, four times. Although he lost every election, he rejected the results and claimed fraud and voter intimidation.
For decades, Museveni’s government has been accused of repeated human rights abuses against opposition leaders and supporters, including illegal detention, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Ugandan authorities rejected these charges, insisting that those arrested were legally detained and had undergone due process in the judicial system.
