Kampala on Friday threw Nairobi under the bus in the controversial saga surrounding the abduction of veteran Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye in Nairobi and his subsequent transfer to Kampala to face charges.
Ugandan Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi confirmed on live television that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government had coordinated with Kenya in the abduction of the opposition leader from Nairobi.
In an interview on Uganda’s NBS television on Friday, Baryomunsi said the Ugandan government was coordinating with its Kenyan counterpart in the arrest of Kizza Besigye.
The minister went on to question how the arrest could have taken place without Kenya’s full knowledge and support.
“How would you arrest somebody in the middle of Nairobi and then take him back to Uganda without the full knowledge and support of the government in Kenya?”
The new revelation puts Nairobi in a difficult diplomatic position after Kenya vehemently denied involvement in Besigye’s abduction, which has been widely condemned.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei denied Kenya’s involvement after news of Besigye’s abduction broke from Nairobi.
“There is no reason whatsoever for Kenya to be involved in his arrest, if at all,” he said.
He also defended Kenya’s human rights record.
“Our human rights record is enviable in the region.”
Besigye has stood against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in four elections and lost each time, although he has always rejected the results.
On Wednesday, Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, claimed that her husband had been abducted from an apartment complex on Riverside Drive in Nairobi on Saturday.
According to his family, Besigye was abducted in Nairobi, taken to Uganda and held in a military prison.
“I call on the government of Uganda to immediately release my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from where he is being held. He was abducted last Saturday when he was in Nairobi for the book launch of Hon Martha Karua. I am now reliably informed that he is being held in a military prison in Kampala. We, his family and his lawyers are demanding to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military prison?” Byanyima posted on her X handle.
Following Besigye’s arrest, his party, through Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Patrick Oboi Amuriat, said they would organise protests at the Kenyan High Commission in Kampala on Monday to express their displeasure with Kenya’s hand in the matter.
