In a social media firestorm, Bobi wine has come to support the notion that Dr Kizza Besigye is the most arrested man in the world, thanks to Museveni's regime.
Dr Kizza Besigye nearly shot to the world's Guinness book of records when he was incarcerated the 50th time in Uganda.
But in January 2020, the Guinness book of records dismissed claims that Besigye is World’s most arrested man.
Guinness World Records described the reports as untrue. “This is not correct. It does seem to have been very widely misreported,” Guinness World Records responded to the media.
However, Bobi Wine and many others share the same belief that indeed Uganda's main opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested numerous times.
During the presidential elections in 2016, Besigye was detained over 15 times. But this was not the very first time.
In 1999 when Dr Kiiza Besigye published a letter criticizing the Museveni regime, his life changed immediately and forever. He was arraigned before the military court-martial for apparently airing his views in the wrong forum.
In October the year 2000, he announced that he would run for president in the 2001 general elections.
Now, if the letter had brought him problems, the declaration that he would challenge Museveni in an election turned him into the number one enemy Museveni and all state institutions in Uganda.
This has been the case for the past 20 years. In June 2001, a few months after the election, Dr Besigye was arrested and questioned over treason.
The Museveni regime claimed that he was training rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Soon after his release, threats against his life increased and he was forced to run into exile where he spent four years.
In 2005, when he returned to Uganda to participate in the 2006 election. As soon as campaigns started, he was quickly arrested and charged with treason and rape.
In charging him with treason, the regime claimed that he had links with the PRA rebels. They also claimed that he was connected to Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army!
Regarding the rape case, the regime claimed that in 1997, nine years earlier, he had raped a daughter of a deceased colleague, a one Joanita Kyakuwa.
Years later, High Court judge, Justice John Bosco Katutsi dismissed the rape charges as contemptible and a clear case of persecution by the regime.
It should be remembered that the rape case was prosecuted by the current chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Justice Simon Byabakama Mugyenyi.
Gen. Kale Kayihura and the present URA Commissioner General, Mr Musinguzi Rujoki played a critical role in the case.
On 16th November 2005, Dr Besigye and his co-accused persons were taken to the High Court for a bail application.
As the hearing was proceeding, armed security men dressed in black raided the court and surrounded the holding cells in which the successful bail applicants were waiting to be released.
As a result of this action, the bail papers could not be processed. The armed men infamously known as the Black Mamba entered into offices at the court and interrupted the processing of bail. The accused were returned to jail.
The army spokesperson at the time, Major Felix Kulaigye told the nation that the Black Mambas had been deployed to re-arrest the suspects in case they had been granted bail by the High Court, in order to ensure that they faced new charges that had been brought against them in the General Court Martial.
The population reacted with anger to these clearly trumped-up charges and the persecution.
The regime responded by banning all public gatherings, rallies and demonstrations related to his trial.
Dr James Nsaba Buturo, then Minister for Information banned talk shows and media debates on the matter and was quoted as stating that the Broadcasting Council would cancel the licenses of any media house that did not take heed of this ban.
When Justice John Bosco Katutsi issued orders against the continued detention and trial of Dr Besigye and others in the General Court Martial, Gen. Elly Tumwine defied the court order and continued the trial.
When the Constitutional Court made further orders against Dr Besigye’s persecution disguised as prosecution, Museveni vowed to fight the court ruling both legally and politically by appointing what he called cadre judges to the bench.
Dr Besigye would be nominated for the 2006 presidential elections while in jail!
Since then, the trials and tribulations of Dr Kizza Besigye and indeed all those who fought alongside him have been long and unending.
He has since lost count of the number of times he has been arrested and detained illegally. Of all the charges he has faced, he has never been convicted of even one.
In 2007, his brother, Joseph Musasizi Kifefe died under unclear circumstances, after spending several years in prison, having been charged with treason.
Many other Ugandans lost lives in hundreds if not thousands as a result of the struggles for freedom and democracy, championed by Dr Kizza Besigye and his fellow strugglers.
Indeed, the husband to our Deputy President in charge of Northern Uganda, Rauxen Zedriga has been missing for over 20 years.
In February 2006, the state lined up one Moses Kizige, Member of Parliament for Bugabula County and former presidential advisor, to petition against Dr Besigye’s academic credentials.
The petitioner claimed that Dr Besigye, who was Museveni’s qualified personal doctor, had used another person’s marks to join Kitante Senior School in 1969.
When Museveni is fighting his opponents, he stoops to any level and deploys every tool available.
Unbelievably, the regime mobilized people from Dr Besigye’s village to come and claim that indeed, he had used another person’s academic documents 37 years earlier.
As usual, the intention of the regime is not that such ridiculous moves will succeed. The intention of Museveni is usually to detract his challengers and keep them busy answering very nonsensical questions, keep them busy in courts of law.
Another case in point which is related to what is happening to us now is that in December 2004, when the Forum for Democratic Change first attempted to register as a political party.
The state-sponsored some individuals and other parties to ferociously fight against the registration of FDC.
Various petitioners claimed that FDC was a rebel group, and went ahead to challenge its slogan, name and symbols as being linked to rebel groups.
Years later, a case would be filed in court seeking orders to block FDC from nominating candidates.
All this is a pattern of repression and suppression against anyone who has dared to rise up against the regime. That is how Museveni fights- like all cowards.
Dr Kizza Besigye in the latest turn of events revealed last month that he will not be running for the 2021 presidential seat. He has got plan B to remove President Museveni from power.
He made this public on Wednesday during an address to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) supporters at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala.
He stated that FDC party leaders have decided to look for someone else to run in the 2021 presidential race.
Comments