Kizza Besigye’s wife demands his immediate release

Winnie Byanyima, wife of veteran Ugandan Opposition figure Kizza Besigye has demanded the immediate release of her husband, accusing the Uganda Prison Service of hiding the true state of his health and denying him adequate medical care. 

In a statement issued on Wednesday, she said Besigye’s condition is deteriorating rapidly while authorities continue to mislead the public and restrict his access to proper treatment.

“I demand that Kizza Besigye be released immediately and allowed to return home to be cared for by his family and doctors,” Byanyima said.

“I also demand that the trumped-up charges against him be dropped. His life is in danger. The responsibility will lie squarely with those who continue to deny him care.”

Byanyima expressed outrage after Uganda Prison Service spokesperson Frank Baine told the public that Besigye was not sick and had only gone for a routine medical check-up.

“The blatant lies told to the public yesterday [Tuesday]… are unacceptable,” she said.

The same institution told the court on Wednesday that Besigye was unable to attend because he was ill, forcing a postponement of the hearing to February 24. 

Byanyima said the contradiction “exposes a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and conceal the truth about his deteriorating health.”

She said she visited Luzira Prison on Tuesday and, after what she described as more than two hours of negotiation with the prison commander, was allowed to see Besigye.

“I found him huddled in a dirty plastic chair in a small room near his cell. He is extremely weak,” Byanyima said.

She said the prison doctor acknowledged that Besigye’s personal doctor had indicated test results showing his infection “is worsening, not improving.”

Byanyima added that Besigye was struggling to walk, is suffering significant pain in his legs and is unable to eat solid food.

Despite his condition, Byanyima said prison authorities refused to transfer Besigye to a fully equipped private hospital where his personal doctor could monitor and treat him under prison guard.

Instead, they proposed admitting him to Murchison Bay Prison Hospital, which she described as a facility “notorious for neglect and preventable deaths,” and where the army would control his treatment.

Besigye, however, rejected the proposal.

“He will not place his life in the hands of President Museveni and his personal army,” she said, adding that Besigye is insisting on being treated by his own doctor in a private hospital.

Byanyima said she was “deeply disturbed” that a man who fell ill five days ago and whose condition was clearly worsening remained in a “tiny, extremely hot cell” and was being denied adequate medical attention.

She described the situation as “cruel, dangerous and unlawful.”

She issued a series of demands to the Luzira Prison authorities and the government, including an explanation for why Besigye is “being denied proper medical treatment”, why the Prison Service “lied to the public about his condition” and why “a gravely ill detainee is being treated with such inhumanity.”

Besigye, who has run for president against Museveni four times, has been in detention with his associate Obeid Lutale since they were both dramatically arrested in Kenya and taken back to Uganda in November 2024.

The PFF leader has been charged in a military court with treason, which carries the death sentence, as well as illegal possession of a firearm and threatening national security. He denied the accusations.

This is not the first time the veteran opposition leader has been taken ill at Luzira Prison, a maximum security jail in Kampala, where he has been held.

Besigye was also reported sick in February last year.