Uganda Military Imprison Kizza Besigye Until January 7th With No Family Visits
The wife of incarcerated Ugandan opposition lawmaker Kizza Besigye has branded the prohibition on prisoners receiving visitors on Christmas Day as “cruel and inhumane”.
Besigye, 68, has been indicted in a military court for possessing pistols and seeking to obtain weapons from overseas, which he denies. His trial has been postponed until next month.
Prison officials claim that convicts would not be allowed visits for seven days, beginning on Christmas Eve, as part of measures to prevent “potential security lapses”.
Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, the director of the UN’s organization to combat HIV and Aids, said she planned to camp outside the Luzira Prison to visit her husband and donate him food on Christmas Day.
She told the BBC that her husband is “strong and persevering” in a “tiny little room” behind six prison gates, but she is concerned that he would be “harmed”.
“I’m not leaving Besigye’s food at the gate [as directed]. I will go there and see my husband because I don’t trust them with him even for a single day,” Ms Byanyima said.
Ms Winnie Byanyima conveys a message from her husband, Dr Kizza Besigye, to Ugandans after visiting him at Luzira Prison, where he is currently remanded alongside his aide, Hajj Obeid Lutale. The two were abducted last month in Nairobi, Kenya, and are now facing charges related… pic.twitter.com/mcrTiBR6lK
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) December 23, 2024
“Maybe I will take a tent and sleep there… if that’s what they want,” she added.
Besigye has run and lost four presidential elections against President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986.
However, the experienced opposition lawmaker has been less politically engaged in recent years and did not run in the 2021 election.
Besigye, on the other hand, made headlines again last month when he was kidnapped while visiting Kenya and forced to flee to Uganda.
He was eventually charged, along with an aide named Obeid Lutale. He, too, denies the claims.
The military court extended Besigye’s arrest until 7 January, dashed his family’s expectations that he would return home for Christmas.
Uganda Prisons Services spokesperson Frank Baine Mayanja told local media that the seven-day visitor ban was designed to improve security during the holiday season and prevent escapes.
“Christmas causes excitement and majority of prisoners do not want to have Christmas inside. They must be planning on how to do a prison break and go outside,” Mr Mayanja told NTV Uganda.
The jail Services had first imposed a nearly month-long restriction on jail visits, but later lowered it to seven days.
Ms Byanyima told the BBC she was particularly concerned about the recent leadership change at Luzira jail, querying why a “young and inexperienced” officer had been appointed to the position.
Remanded veteran opposition politician, @kizzabesigye1's Christmas message to Ugandans.
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) December 23, 2024
The handwritten letter was given to members of People's Front for Freedom (PFF) who delivered to him a Christmas package—food stuffs—at Luzira Prison on December 23, 2024.… pic.twitter.com/8VasTt7Mom
“It is very suspicious and makes me doubt their intentions,” she said.
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“I do not trust his [Besigye’s] life with those who abducted him. I will seek to see him as often as I can,” Ms Byanyima added.
Mr. Mayanja stated that the leadership changes were an “administrative issue” unrelated to Besigye.
He stated that Ms. Byanyima should trust the government to look after her spouse since “we have the means and mechanism of keeping him alive”.
“I think she should let us do our job,” Mr Mayanja said.
Uganda Military Imprison Kizza Besigye Until January 7th With No Family Visits
