Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director and wife to opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, has said they will not beg President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni or anyone powerful and influential to release or forgive her husband. All she will seek, she said, is justice for Museveni’s fiercest critic.
Byanyima says she believes Besigye is innocent and would be found not guilty in a civilian court. She accuses Museveni of using several weapons not to fight or block Uganda’s enemies but to suppress his critics like Besigye.
Besigye, a former Museveni personal doctor in the bush war days, has been the long serving ruler’s fiercest critic. He challenged Museveni in four consecutive presidential elections from 2001 through 2016, losing them all according to official results but claiming he was rigged out.
He was arrested last month in Nairobi, Kenya where had gone to attend the launch of a book by former justice minister and Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua. Besigye and Obeid Lutale Kamulegeya face charges of illegal possession of firearms and of attempting to undermine national security.
They have appeared before the General Court Martial in Makindye but their case is yet to take off as their lead lawyer Karua is yet to get a temporary practicing certificate from the Law Council of Uganda.
Now, while some may want to advise Winnie Byanyima and their family to beg Museveni to pardon Besigye, the politician’s wife says she is not seeking for forgiveness but justice for her husband and his colleague Lutale.
“I am not making pleas – that I don’t like. I am not begging for mercy, I am not begging for forgiveness. I am asking for justice for Kizza Besigye, Hajj Obeid Lutale and other Ugandans who find themselves treated like that. It’s not pleas… I am not pleading,” Byanyima told NBS.
“I am saying this is wrong: I am putting it out there for all well-intentioned people, law abiding people, good people to also say ‘No.’”
When the Besigye legal team went to court this week, a fearless youthful lawyer banged tables, Martha Karua had a tough first day as lead counsel. The following day ,the Chief Justice refused to meet her but she sent him a clear message, as reported Here, There and Over There.
Meanwhile, Winnie Byanyima has also spoken out on begging the Director of Public Prosecutions to help her husband from his troubles, and on her running for president. (See Details Here and There).
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