GNV News – November 24, 2024

On November 16, 2024, Uganda’s prominent opposition leader Kizza Besigye was “abducted” in Nairobi, Kenya, according to claims by his wife, stirring controversy. Besigye had been visiting Nairobi but was taken by unknown persons from Kenya to Uganda and detained at Uganda’s Makindye military prison. Kenyan government officials have denied involvement in the chain of events, but Uganda’s Minister of Information, Communications Technology and National Guidance has hinted that Besigye was arrested and handed over by the Kenyan government.

The Ugandan government alleges that Besigye illegally possessed a firearm and sought support from other countries with the aim of threatening Uganda’s security, but he denies this. He and his aide are to be held in custody until December 2 while the case is under review, and criticism is mounting over civilians being detained and tried in military facilities and over the manner of his transfer.

This incident has further intensified political tensions, as it is seen as emblematic of the Ugandan government’s repression of the opposition. Besigye has run in four presidential elections, losing to the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. He has alleged that previous presidential elections were fraudulently manipulated, but the government denies this and has arrested him multiple times in the past. There have been instances in which Besigye was shot in the hand and injured in the eye, and repeated human rights violations against opposition leaders and supporters by the Museveni government have been alleged.

Learn more about authoritarian regimes and the media → “Dictators who are reported on, and those who are not”

Poster for Uganda’s presidential election (2011)
(Photo: Gabriel White / Flicker [CC BY-SA 2.0] )