Arrest gives Besigye undue attention
Nov 15, 2005
SIR — The arrest and eventual remanding of former<br>presidential candidate and FDC president Col. Kiiza Besigye is unfortunate to say the least. The government has made a great blunder which may have the following repercussions:
SIR — The arrest and eventual remanding of former
presidential candidate and FDC president Col. Kiiza Besigye is unfortunate to say the least. The government has made a great blunder which may have the following repercussions:
l Besigye is going to become a hero and get many more sympathy votes he wouldn’t have got.
l It may tarnish the name of Uganda yet a lot of money is being spent to prop it on CNN.
l the chaos in Kampala is likely to scare away tourists and foreign investors.
Besigye may have a case to answer but the timing was wrong.
Whether he has a case or not, his arrest is by all standards widely seen as
witch-hunt and intimidation of the opposition.
Therefore, in the interest of credibility on the side of the government, he should have been left to contest freely and fail through the ballot rather than resorting to legal complexities.
Robert Kyemba
Iganga
presidential candidate and FDC president Col. Kiiza Besigye is unfortunate to say the least. The government has made a great blunder which may have the following repercussions:
l Besigye is going to become a hero and get many more sympathy votes he wouldn’t have got.
l It may tarnish the name of Uganda yet a lot of money is being spent to prop it on CNN.
l the chaos in Kampala is likely to scare away tourists and foreign investors.
Besigye may have a case to answer but the timing was wrong.
Whether he has a case or not, his arrest is by all standards widely seen as
witch-hunt and intimidation of the opposition.
Therefore, in the interest of credibility on the side of the government, he should have been left to contest freely and fail through the ballot rather than resorting to legal complexities.
Robert Kyemba
Iganga