Kenyan oppositionleader and iron lady Martha Karua has revealed that Dr. Kizza Besigye was kidnapped by a cobweb of operatives from both Uganda and Kenya.
She said the Nairobi regime helped machinists from Kampala to kidnap Besigye from Riverside Apartments after he was dropped off by a taxi driver.
In the latest episode, the Pan African Opposition leaders Solidarity Network has issued a strong statement demanding for his immediate and unconditional release who they say went missing on Saturday November 16, 2024.
Besigye was dropped off at Riverside Apartments for a meeting and a taxi driver who waited for him in the parking area from 4:30 pm until 4:00 am on Sunday morning received no response to his calls or messages Martha Karua, the network’s convener said.
“We suspect that Dr. Besigye may have been abducted after he was dropped at Riverside Apartments, most likely by Ugandan authorities working in cahoots with facilitated by Kenyan authorities” the statement reads.
TheKidnap and subsequent arraigning of former presidential candidate and opposition ideology Kizza Besigye suggest that the Kampala regime has learnt and forgot nothing from past ventures in trying to intimidate and harass one of the men that brought the very system into power 40 years ago.
Like the saying goes history repeats itself, this seem to be true for Dr. Besigye whose journey to Luwero to join the so-called struggle under the then military leader Yoweri Kaguta Museveni started in the same capital Nairobi at Aga Khan university teaching hospital so is the tardiest situation in which the retired army colonel who cut short his medical profession from same Nairobi he was kidnapped and sneaked into Uganda for apparently possessing a pistol and lobbying for fire arms from Western capital as per the revelation of the state in the latest attempt to silence a credible opposition.
In July 2024, 36 members of People’s Freedom Front (PFF) Besigye is a member were also arrested in Kisumu in Kenya at a hotel and forcefully transported back to Uganda where they were held in safehouses before being produced in court on terrorism charges.
“These abductions from Kenya soil, followed by illegal detention in other countries do not bode well for the region” Karua slammed the Kampala regime.
The network called on the Kenyan security apparatus especially the National Police Service to account for Dr. Besigye’s disappearance and for both Kenyan and Ugandan governments to adhere to human rights and international law.
“We challenge the governments of Kenya and Uganda to conduct their cross-border operations in accordance with their respective laws and international human rights law” she said. Adding “Why would government connive to abduct their citizens across boarders when they have the opportunity to make a formal arrest at home?”
Nairobi has lately been an epi-centre for abductions with Turkish, Nigerian and now Uganda’s Besigye being the latest in the growing trend.
However, the Pan-African Opposition Leaders Solidarity Network says it has informed various international organisations about the incident including the African Union, the East African Community and the United Nations.
Besigye has been arrested several times and similar charges slapped against him by Kampala authorities. He is seen as a threat to the Kampala regime.
Besigye at Court Martial
Ugandan authorities claim that Besigye was found with a pistol in Nairobi. However, interestingly, the complaint is Uganda and not Kenya a foreign country where he was found with a gun. Other allegations are that he has mobilizing for arms in foreign western capitals.
“…While at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi Kenya were found in unlawful possession of 08 rounds of pistol ammunition which were ordinarily the monopoly of the defence Forces.
The duo and others still at large between October 2023 and November 2024 while in the cities to wit; Geneva in Switzerland, Athens and Nairobi in Kenya held meetings aimed at soliciting for logistical support and identifying military targets in Uganda with intent to prejudice the security of the Defence Forces.”
