Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye who was seized in Nairobi by agents of Uganda’s intelligence services.
Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was seized in Nairobi by agents of Uganda’s intelligence services and spirited across the border on Saturday, Nation has established.
A security source familiar with the top-secret operation said the spies were monitoring Dr Besigye, who was in the country to attend a book launch by Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua, according to organisers of the event.
However, intelligence sources reported that President Yoweri Museveni’s spies in Nairobi alleged Dr Besigye had held a series of meetings at a Nairobi hotel, including a fundraiser for undisclosed purposes.
A Ugandan military court, where Dr Besigye and his ally Hajj Obeid Lutale were presented on Wednesday, November 20, after their seizure from the Riverside Apartments in Nairobi, was told they were plotting against Uganda’s military targets.
The intelligence brief about their alleged meetings was shared with Kampala, and a decision was reportedly reached with Nairobi to spirit him out of the country.
According to sources, the operation was closely guarded, with details only shared with a few top officials of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service.
It was then that the Ugandan intelligence agents seized Dr Besigye, who, sources said, was driven to Kampala by road on Saturday.
However, the Kenyan government denied that Dr Besigye was abducted in Nairobi, despite a court martial in Kampala where Dr Besigye was arraigned on Wednesday being told he had been arrested at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi on Saturday, 16 November.
Dr Besigye, 68, formerly led the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party, contesting and losing four presidential elections against the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.
Speaking to Nation on the phone on Wednesday, National Police Spokesperson Resila Atieno Onyango said they were unaware of the allegations.
“I have spoken to Nairobi Regional Commander Adamson Bungei, and he says that nothing has been reported of an abduction,” she said.
According to his family, Dr Besigye landed in Nairobi on Saturday, 16 November, and took a taxi from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to his hotel. He had been booked at Waridi Paradise Hotel and Suites on Rose Avenue in Hurlingham, about six kilometres from the Central Business District.
A few hours later, he left the hotel, boarded a taxi, and headed to an address identified as 108 Riverside Drive, where he was to meet someone at apartment number C1102.
This was the last time he was seen on Kenyan soil.
His taxi driver said that he waited for the politician at the apartment’s basement for more than 12 hours, beginning Saturday at 4pm until 4:30am the following morning, when he decided to leave after several of his texts to Besigye went unanswered.
Unknown Ugandan official
On Tuesday evening, Nation received information from a source aware of Dr Besigye’s disappearance. The source revealed that the opposition chief had informed his team he was meeting a Ugandan national at the apartment on Riverside Drive, about five kilometres from his hotel.
It is believed the would-be host, whose identity could not be immediately confirmed, holds a senior rank in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces.
The apartment in question has three blocks - A, B and C. Dr Besigye reportedly went to a house on the eleventh floor of Block C.
A fact-finding mission by the Nation established that each floor has three houses and that Dr Besigye was taken to house No. 2.
During our visit, the floor was eerily dark, with no signs of human activity. The door of the house that Dr Besigye reportedly went to remained tightly shut despite the Nation team knocking and camping there for a while.
The guards at the main entrance to the apartments said they were unaware the Ugandan politician had visited their address on Sunday and declined to share the CCTV footage from the day in question.
“We knew he was coming, but when he did not show up, we called him to find out where he was. No one picked up his phone,” an aide to Ms Karua told Nation.
“At first, our calls went through, but the line went dead, and it has remained so to date.”
She also revealed they received distress calls from Mr Besigye’s team in Uganda, who kept asking about their leader’s whereabouts.
Ms Karua, Narc-Kenya party leader and Convener of the Pan-African Opposition Leaders Solidarity Network, where Dr Besigye is a member, said on Wednesday that the Ugandan politician was to deliver a speech at the launch of her book Against the Tide.
As fate would have it, Dr Besigye did not show up as anticipated, with his empty seat at the book launch sending an unnerving feeling among Ms Karua and her protocol team, who had prepared to welcome him to the event.
In a post on X on Wednesday morning, Dr Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, said her husband was being detained at a military facility in Kampala following his abduction in Kenya. She asked the Ugandan government to release him.
Later, a Ugandan military court charged Dr Besigye and his ally Lutale with possessing arms in Kenya, Greece, and Switzerland.
When he was brought before the general court-martial in Kampala, chaired by Brigadier Freeman Mugabe, the prosecution stated that Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale were, on 16 November, while at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi, found in unlawful possession of eight rounds of pistol ammunition, which are ordinarily the monopoly of the Uganda Defence Forces.
In the first count, the two are charged with offences relating to security, contrary to section 128 (1) (f) of the UPDF Act, Cap 330. They are also charged with unlawful possession of ammunition, contrary to section 4 (1) & (2) of the Firearms Act, Cap 320.
The army claims that, besides Nairobi, the duo and others still at large committed the offences in Athens (Greece) and Geneva (Switzerland) between October 2023 and November 2024.
The prosecution also claims that Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale held meetings in Nairobi, Athens, and Geneva that were aimed at soliciting logistical support and identifying military targets in Uganda, with the intent to prejudice the security of the Ugandan army.
However, lead defence lawyer Erias Lukwago, who is also the interim president of Dr Besigye’s FDC Party, argued that the charge sheet is defective since the alleged offences were committed outside the jurisdiction of the Ugandan army and the Kampala-based court. According to him, the army tribunal has no universal jurisdiction to hear cases allegedly committed across the world.
“All the acts highlighted in this charge sheet do not constitute criminal offences within the laws of Uganda. The UPDF Act is not applicable in Kenya, Switzerland, or Greece. Unlawful possession of firearms? Firearms Act of which country?” Mr Lukwago wondered.
“The charge sheet is ambiguous in nature. This is a defective charge sheet that should not sustain any criminal proceedings before this tribunal. It’s our prayer that this honourable tribunal strikes out this charge sheet and accordingly.”
According to Mr Lukwago, Dr Besigye and Hajj Lutale were illegally arraigned before the army court.
Abducted in Nairobi
The defence also pointed out that the manner in which they were brought from Nairobi to Kampala was illegal.
“The accused persons have been illegally presented before you, Mr Chairman. They travelled to Nairobi lawfully for a legitimate meeting. They entered Kenya lawfully. Once you’re in a foreign territory, you can only be returned through the right process; either extradition or deportation. If it’s through extradition, it has to be with the request of the minister. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no record that the minister made such a request. If it was deportation, then it should have been initiated by the Kenyan authorities, perhaps after the accused were found committing a criminal offence. The record does not show any of those processes,” Mr Lukwago argued.
Brigadier Mugabe remanded Besigye and Hajj Lutale to prison until December 2, when they will return to court for mention of the case.
On Wednesday, the Pan-African Opposition Leaders Solidarity Network condemned Dr Besigye’s kidnapping and detention at a military prison in Kampala, demanding his immediate release and answers about his safety.
International laws
Ms Karua hit out at both the Kenyan and Ugandan governments for collaborating in the abduction, saying they violated national, regional, and international laws.
“This occurrence is deeply disturbing and of grave concern. We suspect that Dr Besigye may have been abducted after he was dropped at the Riverside apartments, most likely by Ugandan authorities working in cahoots with and facilitated by Kenyan authorities,” she said.
In Nairobi, the State Human Rights Commission also condemned rising cases of abductions and enforced disappearances, noting it had documented 1,376 arbitrary arrests from 18 June to November.
“The rising cases of abductions and enforced disappearances are an affront to the human rights tenets that our country ascribes to. We continue to witness and record the cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment of persons taken against their will. The daring incidents recorded on videos and photographs, some even displaying civilian and security agent number plates, are rapidly taking the country back to the dark days of our history,” the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said in a statement on the state of human rights in Kenya between July 2023 and November this year.
“We call for an immediate halt to the unlawful arrests, abductions, and enforced disappearances, as well as the fast-tracking of investigations and prosecutions of all those found culpable. We further call for the criminalisation of enforced disappearances and the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances,” the commission said in a statement released by Chairperson Roseline Odede.
Dr Besigye’s abduction on Kenyan soil comes barely three months after 36 Ugandan activists associated with him were arrested in Kisumu and ferried across the border. The political activists were later charged with treason and remanded to Kitalya Prison.
Reporting by Kamore Main, Steve Otieno, Hilary Kimuyu, Job Bwire and Anthony Wesaka
