Ugandan opposition figure, Kizza Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, has stated that her husband was abducted in Kenya and forcibly returned to Uganda, where he is now detained in a military prison.
Byanyima shared on X that her husband was taken from Nairobi last Saturday while attending a book launch event.
“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” she said, demanding that the government of Uganda release her husband.
Army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye informed Uganda Radio Network that Kizza Besigye will be presented in court at a later time.
However, he did not confirm whether the military is currently detaining him.
BBC News has reached out to the Ugandan government for a statement.
According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper, top members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party had assembled at Makindye military court in Kampala, anticipating his appearance.
Kenya’s state-funded human rights body, KNHRC has condemned “any form of abduction of those people who seek asylum in our country”.
Besigye, 68, led the FDC, contesting and losing four presidential elections against incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.
“We his family and his lawyers demand to see him,” his wife wrote on X.
“He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”
Ms. Byanyima, a prominent human rights advocate, serves as the executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations program aimed at eradicating AIDS.
Her husband, Besigye, once served as President Museveni’s personal doctor before becoming a leading opposition figure. He has openly criticized Museveni, calling him a “dictator” and accusing the government of rigging past presidential elections, allegations the government has denied.
Besigye has faced multiple arrests over the years, during which he has been injured on several occasions. On one instance, he was shot in the hand, and in another, he sustained eye injuries from pepper spray.
Authorities have charged him with inciting violence, accusing him of provoking unrest.
Kenyan human rights organizations have recently raised alarms over a series of forced deportations from Kenya, a country once seen as a refuge for displaced people from across the region. In a notable incident last month, four Turkish refugees were abducted in Nairobi by masked gunmen and forcibly returned to Turkey.
In July, 36 Ugandan opposition supporters who had traveled to Kisumu were deported without legal justification, according to their lawyers.