Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director and wife to veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, has spoken out on the suspected whereabouts of her husband after he was reportedly kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya at the weekend.
Dr Besigye, who challenged long serving Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni in four consecutive elections from 2001 to 2026, is the former bush warlord’s fiercest critic in his nearly four-decade grip on power in the impoverished East African nation.
He opted out of the 2021 race but a new opposition leader, singer and former MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, emerged on the political scene, giving Museveni more political headache.
Besigye is leading efforts for a new party, the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), after some in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) reportedly accepted money from Museveni to finance their 2021 campaigns, as reported Here and There.
The veteran opposition leader was in Nairobi for the launch of a book by Martha Karua, the 2022 running mate to Raila Odinga.
It was in Nairobi that Besigye went missing at the weekend. Now, Winnie Byanyima says that she has reliable information that Besigye is being held in a military prison in the capital Kampala.
Winnie Byanyima is wondering why Besigye, a retired colonel and Museveni’s former personal physician, is being held in a military jail.
“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,” wrote Winnie Byanyima.
“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?”
Under President William Ruto, Kenya is becoming an unsafe country for Uganda’s opposition activities. Tens of pro-Besigye activists were arrested in Kenya months ago and detained on charges of terrorism, as reported Here.
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