Veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, the four-time presidential candidate was last week kidnapped from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and forcibly returned to Uganda.
According to reliable sources who spoke to on condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity, Besigye has been held at Makindye military barracks in Kampala since Sunday.
This information has been corroborated by his wife Winnie Byanyima who posting on her X page, demanded the release of Besigye from military incarceration because he is not a soldier.
“I request the govt [government] of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately. Last Saturday, he was kidnapped in Nairobi for Hon. Martha Karua’s book launch. 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?” Byanyima’s post reads.
On Tuesday evening, we broke a story indicating that Besigye was missing after close friends and relatives lost contact with him.
According to multiple sources, Besigye was last seen Saturday in Uganda when he left his home at Kasangati in Wakiso district to check on a patient at one of the hospitals in Kampala.
That very day, our source told us he traveled to Nairobi to what we now know as attending former Raila Odinga presidential running mate Martha Karua’s book launch.
Another source told us, they lost contact with Besigye and another person he had traveled with shortly after telling them he had arrived in Kenya.
“He sent us a message indicating that he has arrived, but we have not heard from him since. His phone and that of the person he traveled with are off,” the source said.
The Uganda People’s Defense Forces has yet to make a statement on the matter. The alleged Besigye kidnap from Kenya comes barely five months after the kidnapping of 32 FDC Katonga faction activists from Kisumu city in Kenya. These have since been charged with terrorism.
Developing story…