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Uganda opposition leader Kizza Besigye goes on hunger strike

Africa

By AFP | Feb 12, 2025

Uganda's veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye stands in the dock at the Makindye Martial Court in Kampala, on November 20, 2024. - Leading Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye appeared in a military court in Kampala on November 20, 2024 after his reported abduction in neighbouring Kenya. [AFP]

Ugandan former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has gone on hunger strike, his lawyer told AFP Wednesday, months into his detention by authorities after he was snatched from neighbouring Kenya.

Besigye was once President Yoweri Museveni's trusted personal doctor but has become a government target since joining the opposition 25 years ago and unsuccessfully running for president four times.

He was abducted in November and has been facing the death penalty on treason charges in a court martial that his wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima, has called a "sham".

Following media reports of the move, lawyer Elias Lukwago told AFP that Besigye, 68, began his protest on Monday, because he "feels he has been left with no choice but to go on hunger strike".

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Besigye has been awaiting a military trial since November, despite a court ruling last month that it was unconstitutional for civilians to be tried in such a court.

Lukwago said the protest aimed to "show his discontent with (his) illegal detention".

"Unfortunately, we are noticing the toll of the hunger strike on his health," he said, adding that Besigye was too ill to attend certain court hearings that had been scheduled on other charges.

Besigye, in addition to the treason allegation, is separately accused of inciting violence when he led a protest against high commodity prices in 2022.

President Yoweri Museveni rejected last month's supreme court ruling on trying civilians in military courts, saying Uganda "cannot and will not abandon this useful instrument for stability".

An army spokesperson said prior to the president's remarks that "under no circumstances will Colonel Kizza Besigye be released until he faces the full extent of martial law."

The UN and several rights organisations have voiced their concern about the suppression of the political opposition in Uganda in the run-up to the 2026 presidential elections.