Opposition leader’s wife says he was seized in Nairobi and is being held in a Kampala jail as she calls for his immediate release
Prominent Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has appeared in a military court in Kampala after his wife said he had been kidnapped in neighbouring Kenya.
Besigye, 68, a doctor and critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was brought to the Makindye General Court Martial under a heavily armed military escort on Wednesday.
His lawyer Erias Lukwago told the AFP news agency that Besigye appeared in the dock with Hajji Lutale Kamulegeya, another opposition figure.
Lukwago said the two men were accused of being in possession of two pistols and soliciting “logistical support in Uganda, Greece and other countries with the aim of compromising the country’s national security”.
“[Besigye] has denied the charges and challenged the court’s jurisdiction to try him, and he has been remanded to Luzira Prison until December 2,” he added.
Earlier, Winnie Byanyima had called on the Ugandan government to release her husband immediately.
In a post on X, Byanyima, who is the executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, said Besigye was kidnapped on Saturday while he was in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to attend a book launch of another politician.
“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” she wrote. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”
The Ugandan military has not commented on the incident. But Chris Baryomunsi, Uganda’s information minister, said the Ugandan government does not carry out abductions, and any arrests abroad would be made in collaboration with a host country.
Read More on news from source