Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is adamant that his long-time political rival Kizza Besigye, who is still in prison even after the Supreme Court released him from the court martial, must face trial.
Amid mounting pressure from Besigye’s family and human rights watchdogs globally, the President accuses Besigye’s lawyers of frustrating a speedy trial that could free him if he is found innocent.
In a statement on X on Tuesday, responding to condemnation for the continual detention of Besigye, who began a hunger strike last week in protest, the veteran leader wrote: “The answer to that is a quick trial so that facts come out. Otherwise, you are promoting insecurity, which is very dangerous for the country. Nobody in the world can easily give us lectures on reconciliation and forgiveness because that is part of our doctrine right from the 1960s.”
Besigye, a veteran opposition leader in Uganda and a former ally of Museveni during the Bush War that brought Museveni to power in 1986, was first arrested in Nairobi in November 2024, before he was whisked across the border to Kampala. He has been detained since.
Human rights watchdogs criticised both the Kenyan and Ugandan governments for violating the laws on the extradition of suspects.
On Monday, Besigye’s family said Museveni and his son, Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, bear the greatest responsibility for torturing him.
“This is not just illegal detention, it is kidnapping. I am outraged and demand that (President) Museveni and his son, the army chief, release him immediately. He is a citizen with rights—just like them,” said Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima.
Gen Muhoozi has threatened Besigye, firebrand opposition leader Bobi Wine and even the Supreme Court judges, who ruled out the trial of civilians in military courts.
Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, has said the detention violates the law, which Uganda has pledged to uphold.
“We are therefore saddened and deeply troubled by the continued detention of Dr Kizza Besigye, Haji Obeid Lutale and Eron Kiiza, which undermines the ruling of the Supreme Court of Uganda on January 31, 2025, and the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” she said, referring to Besigye’s co-accused detainees.
The abduction of Dr Besigye and Obeid Lutale, which occurred in Nairobi, Kenya, on November 16, 2024, disregards the orders of the Supreme Court of Uganda and the basic principles of justice. Their continued detention raises serious questions about Uganda’s commitment to upholding the rule of law, key tenets of our shared Commonwealth Charter and values,” Scotland said.
On Tuesday in Nairobi, rights groups, including Amnesty International, warned they would march to the Ugandan High Commission in Nairobi to demand for his release.
They demanded that Uganda “promptly, thoroughly, impartially, independently, transparently, and effectively investigate death threats against Kizza Besigye by President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is the Chief of Defence Forces of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces.”
They also said Uganda should immediately propose amendments to the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Act, 2005, as ordered by the Supreme Court, to align it to constitutional principles of due process. The Act allows civilians accused of “serious crimes” such as terrorism and treason to be tried in military courts. It has been used in the past to try the masterminds of the July 2010 World Cup terror attacks in Kampala.
It has also been used to detain political leaders Bobi Wine and Besigye, and is seen as a political weapon against those seeking to unseat Museveni.
But the Ugandan leader argues that the military court is not the problem – the suspects are.
“Who slowed down the trial process? It is the courts that pointed out some gaps in the Military Courts and they ordered the transfer of the cases to Civilian Courts,” he said. “If you are innocent, why do you not demand for a quick trial so that you can prove your innocence and expose those who are persecuting you instead of demanding bail, forgiveness, as if serious crime is also entitled to holidays? However, in this case, Dr Besigye, was on hunger strike. That is part of the cause for his weakness that we could see in the pictures that were in the newspapers. Is that not unprincipled blackmail? How can you be accused of serious crimes and, then, your response is hunger strike to generate sympathy for getting bail, etc.?”
The Uganda Law Society, however, argued that the prosecutors were breaking the law by holding a man in custody while they wait for a law to be enacted so they can charge him in civilian courts. Asiimwe Anthony, vice-president of the Society, said the Supreme Court had struck down provisions of the law under which he had been charged in the military court.
Consequently, there is no trial to transfer to civilian courts, and the Director of Public Prosecutions has no basis to take over the case,” he said in a statement.
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