Besigye’s movement “entrenches the heart”

In a nation he nearly led as president, Dr. Kizza Besigye, 68, remains the most arrested and prosecuted politician and activist on record.

Besigye’s first attempt at the presidency in 2001, which began with a “Reform Agenda,” did not bring him peace and freedom.

For the years he has been active in politics, and after “calling it off,” the first and former FDC party president has served more time in prison than his political allies.

Courtrooms and prisons have been his homes. He is currently being held at Luzira Prison as a result of the “unconstitutional” military court’s orders.

On January 31, Supreme Court ruled that military court should not try civilians, branding it “unconsitutional.”

While he is expected to be tried by a competent court (civil court) for illegal possession of firearms and treachery, charges levied against him along with Obed Lutale following the Nairobi arrest, Besigye will also face a trial before Buganda Road Court.

This trial is linked to his main role in the 2022 protest against rising living costs.

“Worldwide calls” for his release.

For weeks, there have been calls from outside Uganda for Besigye’s release. Activists, human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, and, most recently, the Commonwealth, have expressed concern about his continued detention despite his deteriorating health.

Local activists, politicians (MPs), medical professionals, and lawyers are demanding his immediate release.

One human rights activist, Tamali Auma has been following Besigye for years right from their FDC era. On Monday, she told tndNews: “Besigye is not just an individual.”

Tamali added: “Dr. Besigye has grown and is now a “movement” and a progressive movement by the way. This movement, she says, has got membership that stretches nationally and not just the previous “Kampala City things.”

“You have seen his remand alone turning tables in Parliament, Judiciary, Civil Society, Church, etc., and I know the State wasn’t that ready for what is unfolding now.”

She revealed that Besigye’s “movement entrenches the heart” and you “don’t need to ask someone to belong to a movement or pay people to join it and this is Dr. Besigye’s greatest success in the struggle to liberate Uganda.”

“State holding him in Luzira, I compare to a fool trying to contain smoke because he doesn’t want neighbors to know he is cooking.”

The events unfolding, she opines, should tell you clearly what would happen in this country in case a thing like (death in custody) happened to Dr. Besigye.

“Releasing him at whatever stage is the best the State can do now. They themselves are not even ready…”

Museveni speaks 

On Monday, President Museveni spoke on Besigye and continued calls for his release. “….Naye Dr. Besigye arrested? Why was Dr. Besigye arrested?” “The answer to that is a quick trail so that facts come out. Otherwise, you are promoting insecurity which is very dangerous for the country.”

The President, added: “Nobody in the world can easily give us lectures on reconciliation and forgiveness because that is part of our doctrine right from the 1960s.”

On Besigye’s sickness, Museveni, 80, said: “There is, first of all, a Gov’t hospital in the Prison. Besides, Dr. Besigye’s personal doctors have been visiting him and even taking him to private clinics…”