Besigye faces Court Martial again

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Four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye is Wednesday, November 20, 2024, set to be produced at the General Court Martial (GCM) in Makindye, Kampala again.

Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye told New Vision Online this morning that Besigye would be arraigned at 11:00 am.

“Go to Makindye Court at 11:00 [am], you will have answers,” he said when asked about Besigye’s whereabouts.

Besigye, who has been arrested on many occasions in the past and even produced in the GCM over charges of terrorism and unlawful possession of firearms, is said to have been arrested in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on November 16, 2024.

His wife Winnie Byanyima posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday (November 20) that he was being held in a military jail and demanded the Government free him.

“I request the government of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately. He was kidnapped last Saturday while he was in Nairobi for Hon Martha Karua’s book launch,” Byanyima, who is the executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, posted.

“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?” she asked.

Terrorism charges

Besigye said on July 28, 2024, that his 36 Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party colleagues who were charged with terrorism-related offences after they were deported from Kenya were “dully cleared by Uganda immigration and security” to travel to Kisumu for a week-long leadership workshop.

“They claim that the 36 people were in Kenya with the purpose of ‘terrorism training’. Since they were monitoring them, they would have let the training commence to get evidence!” he posted on his X account.

The 36 FDC activists were released early this month on bail by the International Crimes Division of the High Court.

Besigye, who is also the founding FDC president, said in the same post “there’s a fully-fledged political struggle to end this rule by force”.

On August 11, 2024, Besigye also took to X and said “schemes of Uganda’s lucrative “intelligence industry are very predictable”.

He claimed that security chiefs created a big plot to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni from power using known and/or suspected opponents, and then demanded urgent operation budgets, media campaigns and diplomatic activity.

“Their plan is to make Ugandans (falsely) believe that it’s foreigners plus LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) communities, working with ‘opposition’ to change the government!” Besigye wrote.

He was reacting to the lead story of the August 10-11 Weekend Vision under the headline ‘security busts plot to bring down govt’.  

According to intelligence reports, Besigye is still considered a force in the bigger scheme of forceful regime change by foreign forces.