PFF launches prayer drive as Besigye marks one year in jail

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On Sunday, Kenya’s opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, now part of a broad-based government, led by President William Samoei Ruto, marked 20 years since its formation.

That same day, across the border, their ally Col (Rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye of the People’s Front for Freedom clocked one year since he was thrown behind bars over subversion-related counts.

A snapshot, analysts say, effectively captures two familiar parties with contrasting fortunes.

Besigye, together with his aide, Hajj Obed Lutale, was arrested by security operatives on November 17, 2024, in Nairobi, where they had travelled to attend the book launch of Martha Karua, the leader of the People’s Liberation Party (PLP).

The duo was repatriated to Uganda, where they were first arraigned before the General Court Martial. Their cases were later transferred to civilian courts after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on January 31 this year, which annulled the trial of civilians in military courts.

Since then, frantic efforts by People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) to which they belong to secure them bail have repeatedly collapsed, leaving many wondering whether their leader could be in for the long haul, a strain which seems to be taking a toll among the party faithful.

On Monday, November 17, 2025, at the party’s press briefing at the Katonga Road offices, the mood was markedly low. Before the briefing began, supporters sat unusually quiet, as if weighed down by thoughts, save for the occasional bursts of the late Adam Mulwana’s ‘Toka kwa Bara-bara, Besigye ameingia’ anthem and a host of anti-apartheid songs.

And when Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, who is the party’s interim president, finally took to the microphone, he did not attempt to hide the gravity of the matter, reminding those present how the day shall remain etched in their memory forever. 

“Sixteenth of November will always be a day of infamy in the records of not only Katonga here, not only PFF but the entire country. The harrowing story of what transpired to Besigye and Obed Lutale on that fateful day remains vivid in our minds, all of us and in our records,” Lukwago said.

“It came as a fool’s day story that Besigye had been whisked away from Riverside apartments in Nairobi. The news started trickling rather in a very informal way. It was never a headline in Nairobi, nor here. Until Wednesday, the following week when it featured in the headlines of our dailies here,” he said.

Without any clue of his whereabouts, they launched a wild goose chase until they eventually learned that he had allegedly been held in a military detention facility for three nights. Lukwago told journalists that the real reason for Besigye’s arrest was far-fetched compared to the narratives circulating in court and various media quarters.

“Besigye is a political juggernaut, whether they like it or not. You know a colossus, a person who is the anchor of the struggle in the country. Mr Museveni knows how indomitable Besigye is when it comes to fighting dictatorship. They have tried everything possible to crush that spirit in vain,” he added.

Adding that, Besigye has long championed a transition agenda from military rule to a truly democratic dispensation where the will of the people reigns supreme. A stance, he believes, might have put him in crosshairs with those in power.

“The absence of Besigye from the political scene, the political colossus, political juggernaut I have talked about, is felt by all and sundry. Now and again, the question lingering on your mind, when you witness political events unfolding, the question lingering on your mind all of you is; what would Besigye do? That is a serious question we need to answer,” he said.

Prayer drive

Fast forward, in a bid to pile more pressure on authorities, Lukwago revealed that Katonga road-based PFF had declared a Besigye prayer week with effect from today. With a call to all peace-loving Ugandans to feature the Rukungiri native and all political prisoners in their prayers.

“We ask all of you kindly during this prayer week. This is a politically charged season; we are all in campaigns. At all our campaign meetings, activities, we start the proceedings with a prayer to Dr Kizza Besigye and all political prisoners. This request is not only to our candidates but to all our comrades in various formations who are seeking for regime change," he implored.

Furthermore, he asked all party candidates to prioritise the issue of freeing political prisoners currently behind bars in their campaigns. Saying that without this, they are all endangered species.

“In the summary of the case in this matter of Dr Besigye and Obed Lutale, which was presented before Her Worship Nantegge Christine in Nakawa and subsequently filed before the High Court, my brother Honourable Semujju Nganda, Salaamu Musumba and I were listed as accomplices. Don’t forget it,” Lukwago argued.

“And indicated that look, in all the meetings in Geneva, Greece and Nairobi, a person of Semujju Nganda, Salaamu Musumba, Lukwago and others featured prominently. Maybe they are putting us on the radar, monitoring what we are doing and anytime they can pounce on us,” he added.

Regional pushback

Also, among their action points, Lukwago said, together with their counterparts in Nairobi and Tundu Lissu’s Chama cha Maendeleo na Demokrasia (CHADEMA) in Tanzania, to confront what they describe as creeping fascism in the region, although he did not spell out how they intend to do so.

He cited the recent mistreatment of Ugandan activist Agartha Atuheire in Tanzania, imprisonment of Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who were recently released by Uganda and the earlier arrest of the ‘Kisumu 36’ a group of Ugandan activists who were arrested last year in Kenya, where they were attending a training.