Besigye went missing in Nairobi and now held in Kampala, says wife Byanyima

The wife of Ugandan opposition politician, Kizza Besigye, has asked Uganda’s military to release her husband from military detention in Kampala.

“I request the government of Uganda to release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately. He was kidnapped last Saturday while he was in Nairobi for Hon Martha Karua’s book launch'" Ms Byanyima posted on her X handle in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. 

"I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala.  We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?,” Ms Byanyima, who is the executive director of Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), further said.

The four-time presidential contender was last seen on Saturday evening at an apartment complex on Riverside Drive in the Westlands area of the Kenyan capital.

Besigye had been booked to stay at the Waridi Paradise Hotel and Suites in Hurlingham neighbourhood, about 15 minutes by car from the Riverside Drive apartment.

An official at the hotel told The Monitoron Tuesday night that Besigye had not returned to the hotel since he left on Saturday. 

However, the Spokesperson of the National Police Service, Dr Resila Atieno Onyango, has denied claims that the Ugandan opposition figure was abducted in Nairobi.

Besigye's disappearance follows the July 23 arrest of 36 Ugandan activists associated with him in Kisumu, the lakeside city in Kenya close to the border.

The political activists were abducted and ferried back to Uganda where they were charged with treason and remanded to Kitalya Prison. 

The activists, who were recently released on bail, pleaded not guilty to the charges and said they were attending a workshop when they were arrested. The 36 activists claim to have been tortured during their detention.