A Ugandan opposition leader was taken hostage in Kenya, according to his wife

A well-known opposition leader from Uganda was abducted at a book launch in Kenya over the weekend. He was then taken to Uganda and is being held at a military jail in Kampala, according to his wife on Wednesday.

Kizza Besigye has run against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni four times and lost all of them, but he has always contested the results, saying that fraud and voting pressure happened. He has been caught and jailed many times before.

His wife Winnie Byanyima said, “I ask the government of Uganda to free my husband Dr. Kizza Besigye right away from where he is being held.”

It was not possible to get a word right away from a Ugandan military spokeswoman.

A spokeswoman for the Ugandan police told Reuters, “As police, we don’t have him, so we can’t say anything.”

A spokesman for Kenya’s national police did not answer right away when asked for comment.

In July, 36 members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, which is one of Uganda’s main opposition groups, were arrested in Kenya and sent back to Uganda to face charges of terrorism.

Byanyima wrote on the social media site X that Besigye was taken hostage on Saturday while the book launch for senior Kenyan opposition leader Martha Karua was going on. Besigye used to be Museveni’s doctor during the guerrilla war but later became a vocal critic.

“I have now been told with confidence that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” said Byanyima, who is in charge of UNAIDS, the UN program for HIV/AIDS. “We want to see him. His family and lawyers do.” He’s not a soldier. “Why is he being held in a military jail?”

Museveni’s government has been accused of abusing people’s rights many times against opposition leaders and followers, such as by detaining them illegally, torturing them, and killing them without a trial.

Officials say the claims are false and that the people who were arrested are being held officially and being handled properly by the court system.