Kizza Besigye, Uganda’s four-time presidential contender was on Tuesday arrested after the country’s police scampered a rally he was expected to address in Mbarara District west of Kampala, the Daily Monitor reports.
The police fired teargas and live bullets to disperse supporters of the former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate.
Dr Besigye, his driver and the FDC secretary for mobilisation, Ms Ingrid Turinawe had left Grand Holiday Hotel to Kakyeka stadium at about 2pm (+3GMT) to canvass for votes for Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, who is vying for the FDC presidency. The police blocked Dr Besigye’s car from passing through Mbarara Town High Street. They were arrested and detained at Mbarara Central Police Station with charges of inciting violence.
“Supporters started pelting the police with stones, as the law enforcers fired live bullets, tear gas and sprayed water into shops where suspected protesters were hiding,” the report says.
“Some traders were seen closing their businesses as police and the Dr Besigye supporters continued to exchange stones and bullets”.
Most arrested man in Africa?
Mr Besigye has been arrested on numerous occasions and this will not be the first time for the veteran opposition leader to be detained and charged.
Besigye has been charged way too many times. One day he will turn into a phone.
— Marvin EL Smull (@EL_Smull) July 14, 2016
During an interview with Daily Monitor in 2013, Besigye stated that he would not be running for presidency in 2016 and that he would instead use other means “to dismantle the dictatorship”.
He said contesting for the presidency under the current Electoral Commission would be a “ritual without any political significance”.
In 2015, he changed his mind.
Some seven months before the 2016 election, he was arrested ahead of a campaign rally and accused of violating public order laws by attempting to hold public meetings without the government’s permission.
Three days before the election, on his way to a rally, he was briefly held by police who accused him of disrupting the traffic.
On one occasion he was shot in the hand, on another he suffered eye injuries after being doused in pepper spray.
On the afternoon of the February 2016 Election Day, he was arrested and accused of attempting to storm a facility where he alleged ballot stuffing was taking place.
Many other arrests followed that week and throughout the year.
During an interview with Media Diversified in September 2016, Dr Besigye last statement was,” The defiance campaign goes beyond Uganda, it is about Africans regaining their rights and challenging those that have exploited the culture of fear ingrained in us since colonialism. A reminder to them that the people are the masters and the Governments the servants, for far too long it has been the other way round.’
Besigye’s dates with history:
- 1956: Born
- 1975: Went to Kampala
- 1979: Joins Museveni’s movement
- 1981: Imprisoned
- 1982: Becomes Museveni’s doctor
- 1986: Named minister
- 2001: Challenges Museveni in elections. Flees Uganda after losing
- 2005: Returns to Uganda
- 2006: Charged with treason and rape before election – later acquitted on both counts
- Feb 2011: Loses election
- April 2011: Injured during one of four arrests during “walk-to-work” protests
- February 2016: runs for president for a fourth time, he loses..again.
