What we know about the arrest of an opposition leader in Uganda

The mysterious arrest of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye during a visit to Kenya almost two weeks ago has sparked criticism and fears of secret intelligence sharing between the two neighbours.

Besigye’s allies and wife have come forward to reveal shocking details of how the opposition leader was lured to meet his captors, who were said to have posed as Kenyan security guards.

Reports say he was spotted when he boarded a plane at Entebbe airport in Uganda bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where he was picked up, before being transferred to a military court at home without trial.

Although Kenya has maintained that it was not involved and is investigating the incident, Uganda says that Kenya is fully aware of the plan, citing intelligence documents aimed at tracking down Besigye.

As his detention is extended until next week by a military court in Kampala, we gather what we know so far.

Besigye has run for president four times defeating President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.

He has not been very active in politics recently, and did not run for the 2021 election.

But earlier this year, he founded a new party, the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) after defecting from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), which he founded twenty years ago.

The opposition politician has been visiting Kenya for years and moving freely, sometimes attending high-profile events – despite being Museveni’s biggest rival and biggest critic.

This time, Besigye went to Nairobi to attend the book launch of Kenyan opposition politician Martha Karua.

The suspect, 68, arrived in the city on the morning of November 16 and took a taxi to his hotel in the affluent area of ​​Hurlingham. He was accompanied by his longtime colleague Hajj Obeid Lutale.

A few hours later, he left the hotel, took a taxi and headed to Riverside Drive, five kilometers from his hotel, for a private meeting, according to his political allies.

It was the last time he was seen until he reappeared in Uganda four days later.

His taxi driver said he waited for the veteran politician for more than 12 hours, before he decided to leave when he couldn’t call him.

Besigye’s team in Uganda began sending distress calls after their leader’s calls went unanswered.

His disappearance made headlines and caused shame in the region, when his wife Winnie Byanyima, who is the head of the UN organization fighting HIV and Aids, posted on social media that her husband had been “kidnapped” in Nairobi.

The next day, his reserved seat at the book launch, where he was expected to be the guest speaker, remained empty as the organizers flagged his absence.

Besigye and his friend Lutale arrived at an apartment on Riverside Drive where he was to meet an unknown Ugandan and another unknown British person, according to Ms Byanyima.

This British native is said to want to introduce Besigye to a group of colleagues and businessmen, who had expressed their desire to support the PFF financially, he said.

In the room was a box that appeared to be full of money. One of the hosts had two guns.

Shortly after the brief introduction, eight men in plain clothes who claimed to be Kenyan police knocked on the door and told Besigye and his colleagues that they were under arrest, Ms. Byanyima told Kenya’s Citizen TV.

The leader of the opposition parties tried to explain that he had nothing to do with the things in the house, but the security forces did not listen.

The four men put Besigye and Lutale in a car with Kenyan license plates and drove them at night towards the Ugandan border.

“Obviously it was well planned,” Ms. Byanyima added.

Before crossing to Uganda, the four men stopped speaking Swahili and started speaking Ugandan, Luganda and Runyankole.

The hostages were transported to Uganda without their belongings, including their passports, which were seized by Besigye’s party officials from a hotel in Nairobi.

PFF spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda told a Ugandan newspaper that Besigye and his friend crossed the Malaba border without stopping for security checks.

“They only changed cars. A four-wheel drive car with Kenyan number plates was left at the Malaba border and moved to another car. [a] Ugandan numbers,” he said.

Uganda’s Minister of Information, Chris Baryomunsi, said that detectives had assembled enough units to arrest Besigye while he was in Nairobi.

He said the Kenyan authorities had carried out a cross-border operation, although officials in Nairobi maintained that they knew nothing about it.

Besigye is currently being tried in Kampala and not in Nairobi because the case was planned for “Uganda and not Kenya,” Ugandan army spokesman Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye said. he told the BBC’s Africa Daily podcast.

“We have a legal framework with our Kenyan partners to deal with issues that threaten the security of the region,” he added.

However, he did not explain why there is no refund plan.

Reports indicate that Besigye’s arrest had been planned for months and he was killed with the help of some of his close associates.

The organizers of the meeting are said to be British and a senior officer in the Ugandan army, both of whom are well known to Besigye, Ugandan media reported.

His wife said the British man who was at the meeting was “a paid person who tried to plant guns” on Besigye.

Over the past decades, hundreds of civilians have been tried in Uganda’s military courts, although the Constitutional Court has ruled against this practice.

Besigye, who is not known for appearing in military courts, returned there because he was obeying martial law, Brig Kulayigye told the BBC.

Last week, he and his co-accused were arrested at a military court in Makindye after spending four days without anyone seeing them.

They are facing four charges including possession of two guns and ammunition, and seeking to buy weapons from immigrants in the Swiss city of Geneva, the capital of Greece, Athens, and Nairobi.

The two have denied all charges.

Besigye denied that his case was tried in a military court, and said that if there are any charges against him, they should be tried in a civilian court.

His lawyers also said that the crimes he was accused of were committed outside Uganda and therefore he was illegally court-martialed.

But the court overruled the lawyers and allowed the trial to proceed.

The suspects were first detained in Luzira prison until December 2, which has been extended to December 10.

The court is expected to rule on the objections raised by the prosecution team, including that Uganda has the right to try Besigye for crimes he allegedly committed in foreign countries.

The postponement also gives time for Besigye’s new lawyer, Martha Karua of Kenya, to obtain a temporary license to participate in the trial.

Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan lawyer and human rights activist, told the BBC that Kenya should have arrested Besigye and sent him back to Uganda following the laws governing the process.

Mrs. Byanyima said she did not expect that her husband would get justice.

But Brig Kulayigye said the military court was “not a kangaroo court”.

“Justice will be served.”

Kenyan authorities have alternated between denying any knowledge of the operation and remaining silent, while Ugandan officials say there is a lot of intelligence shared between the two countries.

“The Ugandan government has been communicating with the Kenyan government. Besides, how can you arrest a person in the middle of Nairobi and bring him back to Uganda, either through the airport or on land, without the full knowledge and support of the Kenyan government?” Information Minister Baryomunsi told Uganda’s NBS TV.

Many Kenyans are questioning the state of security relations between the two countries and whether there is a full disclosure that Besigye will be charged in a military court.

Last Tuesday, Kenya’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Musalia Mudavadi, did not give clear answers to reporters, urging that his country be judged “very harshly”.

Mudavadi, who is also acting interior minister, said Kenya is an open country, which allows “a lot of latitude”. But he warned foreigners against creating tension between Kenya and their countries.

He said the Besigye issue would be resolved through dialogue, describing Uganda as having “a strong partnership with Kenya”.

Uganda’s admission that Kenya is involved in the kidnapping has left the Kenyan government facing a backlash in Uganda and at home.

Some Ugandans staged protests outside the Kenyan embassy in Kampala while others threatened to boycott Kenyan products.

Besigye’s arrest follows a series of kidnappings and disappearances in Kenya, including forced the deportation of four Turkish refugees to Ankarawhere they were facing allegations of plotting against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Additional reporting by Alan Kasujja