Last Wednesday, Dr Kizza Besigye walked into the High Court in Kampala flanked by Obeid Lutale and Capt Denis Oola, his co-accused in a treason case the State has been working on for nearly a year.
His arm shot up and frenetically flashed the V-sign as supporters with access from an upper-floor vantage point both musically and lyrically urged that the veteran politician ‘never surrender[s].’
Across four electoral cycles, from 2001 to 2016, Dr Besigye left his rivals in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party on tenterhooks with energetic displays at rallies where the V-sign was generously flashed.
After sitting out the 2021 presidential poll, it increasingly looks like he will remain behind bars as candidates barnstorm the country before Ugandans cast their votes in January. On Wednesday, the 69-year-old took what has since been described as a defiant stand in court when he engaged Justice Emmanuel Baguma in a direct exchange.
While there is no love lost between Dr Besigye and Justice Baguma, who the former accuses of being biased, a section of leaders in the Kigezi Sub-region have warned that the continued denial of court bail and detention of the four-time presidential candidate will not be without consequences. Mr Leopold Twesigye, the leader of the Opposition at Kabale District Council, told Sunday Monitor that many people in Kigezi may opt for a protest vote against NRM candidates on account of their son of the soil being victimised.
‘Some people in the Kigezi region have a feeling that denying Dr Kizza Besigye his constitutional right to get bail is total victimisation and abuse of the rights of their son. Some people are opting for a protest vote against the NRM party flag bearers and vote for the Opposition members because they feel their son is being victimised,’ Mr Twesigye said on Thursday.
Protest vote
Statistics from the Electoral Commission (EC) show that, in the 2016 General Election, Dr Besigye polled 161,838 votes in Kigezi against Mr Museveni’s 328,678 votes. Mr Roland Mugume Kaginda, a member of Besigye’s People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) party and former lawmaker of Rukungiri Municipality, disclosed that while some people in the area are planning to boycott the 2026 General Election, others are intent on voting out NRM politicians.
‘Majority of the people in Rukungiri District have already started sidelining the NRM party flag bearers by mobilising support for all the Opposition candidates because they feel the son of the soil, Dr Besigye, is being detained illegally. Two Opposition candidates vying for the post of district councillor in Rukungiri went through unopposed because the NRM party members feared competing with them,’ Mr Mugume said.
Dr Thaddius Nicholas Kamara, the Kabale Municipality lawmaker, reiterated Mr Mugume’s claims. ‘Many people who believed in Dr Besigye’s ideology of agitating for change in government leadership through democratic means feel that his continued detention is malicious. Others believe voting for Opposition leaders in the forthcoming general election will be the only way to show their feelings about the continued detention of the son,’ Dr Kamara said. Mr Daniel Eguma, the executive director Kigezi Human Rights Foundation, says PFF party candidates in Kigezi Sub-region may earn a sympathy vote because of the continued detention of their party leader. Mr Eguma said the impact will be most felt in the urban areas where Dr Besigye is the darling of many. Less so in rural constituencies where support for the ruling NRM party remains strong. ‘It’s a stretch’ Mr Edison Turyahabwa, the publicity secretary for the NRM party in Kabale District, told Sunday Monitor that threats of a so-called protest vote and the Opposition getting a sympathy vote are empty and hollow.
‘The NRM party support in the Kigezi [Sub-]region is massive and cannot be shaken by sentiments of a few individual Opposition leaders. Many people in this [sub-]region have benefited from the NRM government poverty eradication programmes such as the Parish Development Model, Youth Livelihood Funds, Emyooga, the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, among others. I strongly disagree with those politicians claiming that NRM party flag bearers will lose in the 2026 General Election because of Dr Kizza Besigye’s detention,’ Mr Turyahabwe said. Similarly, Mr Chris Turyomurugyendo, the assistant Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Kabale District, said the detention of Dr Besigye is not connected with the politics of Kigezi.
90 percent target
‘People from the Kigezi [Sub-]region should not be diverted by some Opposition politicians using the issue of Dr Besigye, and they should continue with their mobilisation strategies to ensure President Museveni and all the NRM party candidates win the 2026 General Election with more than 90 percent. The arrest and detention of Dr Besigye has no negative impact in the politics of Kigezi [Sub-]region because the charges he is facing did not originate from this region,’ Mr Turyomurugyendo concluded. Away from lush greenery and cultivated fields of Kigezi, and to the concrete jungle of Kampala, Dr Besigye wrote a letter to Justice Baguma on Friday.
‘Being a person accused of a serious offence, I find it strange and oppressive if I cannot raise a concern directly in open court. If each time a written submission of the concern has to be made and time fixed for your response, the case may never be concluded. Meanwhile, I remain confined in prison,’ Dr Besigye wrote.
‘Be that as it may, prior to raising my concern in writing, I request you to point me to the provisions of the law that bar an accused person from orally raising concerns in court, touching their trial during audience with the judge in the presence of their lawyers,’ he added. Court is expected to reconvene on the eve of Independence Day-on Wednesday-to consider the concerns Dr Besigye penned.