Besigye: It's Useless To Use Guns To Remove Museveni (Flashback)

A decade since he said it was useless to remove Museveni using guns, opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye is on remand in Luzira Prison on charges of attempting to undermine national security, illegal possession of firearms and reportedly mobilizing to put down President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government.

Besigye was Museveni’s bush war comrade, serving as his personal doctor during the National Resistance Army (NRA) war and later a key member of the new government in its early years.

But at the turn of the millennium, Besigye fell out with Museveni, challenging him in four presidential elections from 2001 to 2016.

Besigye won none of the polls, according to official election results. As Besigye, 68, faces the General Court Martial, we take a look at his comments on removing Museveni using guns as made about 10 years ago.

At the time, some people might have wondered why Besigye was not entertaining the idea of using violence to remove Museveni. When he came on the political scene, some Ugandans might have embraced him for being a military officer who understood Museveni, a former warlord, and one who would remove him by all means.

In May 2014, Dr Besigye, a retired colonel, spoke at Makerere University where he addressed a rally as the opposition and activists moved around Uganda advocating for electoral reforms in the build-up to the 2016 polls.

Besigye warned that removing guns to remove Museveni would simply transfer power from the hands of one group of gun owners to another band of gun owners. It would simply be a change of guards (mere change of guards).

“We can organize, get guns and subdue them. We know where the guns are; we can get them for we know how to use them,” said Besigye.

“The reason we fight to remove a regime monopolizing our power is to end the monopoly of power. But if we use guns, it will not empower our population.”

In Besigye’s current troubles, alleged leaked classified audios said to be of Besigye have ‘him’ negotiating firearms with a foreigner, talking of downing a helicopter using his alleged contacts in the airforce, and talking about an ‘unserious’ Bobi Wine, as reported Here.