Published on November 20, 2024 by Agencies for Kenya Online News
Last Updated on 1 year by Agencies for Kenya Online News
Ugandan opposition politician and a former presidential candidate Dr Kiiza Besigye was kidnapped during a book launch in Kenya over the weekend, transferred to Uganda and is being held at a military jail in Kampala, his wife said on Wednesday, 20 November 2024.
Besigye, who was Museveni’s physician during the guerrilla war but later became an outspoken critic, was kidnapped on Saturday during the launch of a book by veteran Kenyan opposition politician Martha Karua, said his wife Winnie Byanyima wrote on the social media platform X.
“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” said Byanyima, who is the executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”
Kizza Besigye has run against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in four elections and lost each time, although he has rejected the results, alleging fraud and voter intimidation. He has been arrested dozens of times before.
“I request the (government) of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately,” said his wife Winnie Byanyima.
