Winnie and Kizza Besigye - sticking together despite harassment by Ugandan police force.
Mrs Besigye had returned from New York to attend to her husband who had been admitted at Nairobi Hospital after he was brutally arrested and injured by Museveni’s security operatives on April 28. This was when Dr Besigye, who had earlier in the same week been shot in the hand and then sprayed with an as yet unidentified chemical by Ugandan security men led by Gilbert Arinaitwe, was on his way to a bank in Wandegeya, a Kampala, to withdraw some money. According to HRW, at least 10 unarmed civilians including two toddlers have been shot and killed during the police crackdown on the protesters. Scores have sustained permanent injuries and young children have been tear-gassed.
Asked by TLEP to explain reasons why Dr Besigye was virtually under house arrest now,
Uganda Police spokesperson, Judith Nabakobo corroborated Ms Byanyima’s account but denied that Dr. Besigye is under house. “No, who has told you that he is under house arrest? No that’s a lie, he is not, but it is up to him, whether to go out or to stay inside, it’s up to him. We are not bothered,” said Ms Nabakooba whilst responding to a question why Dr. Besigye has been put under house arrest.
“Police are just on their routine patrolling in the area. They are just on normal duties of patrol, nobody has cordoned off his house, he is free to do what he wants as long he doesn’t contravene the laws,” said Ms Nabakooba during a telephone interview with this newspaper. “The incident happened very early in the morning at around 6:30 as police were just on a normal routine check patrol point. They would check every vehicle that would bypass them. In the course, they stopped her driver. She refused even to open the windows, she stayed adamant in the vehicle; nobody knew who was inside because it wasn’t their official vehicle. Because they were not ready to obey what police was telling them like; opening the windows for police to see inside, the windows had tinted glasses and they were up. Police had to tow the vehicle to the station. When they reached the station they came out, Winnie, some other persons and the driver.”
Whilst responding to a question whether the vehicle Ms Byanyima was traveling in is not registered in Dr. Besigye’s names, Ms Nabakooba who was not at the scene at the time of the incident, said : “They told me it wasn’t their official vehicle, they [police] were just checking on normal routine.”
Nabakooba added: “It was checked and it normal for any police officer. They can do search, they can open a vehicle, they can mount a search.” “It was Winnie who was inside, they left them to go, however, they opened a file on the driver for disobeying the lawful order under the traffic road section,” said Nambooka without elaborating. She added: “If the police officer stopped you, why would you not stop, why would you even refuse to open the window?. Why would you like people to start speculating that who is inside?”
She went on to add: “Police are just patrolling. They are just on normal duties of patrol. Nobody has cordoned off his house. He is free to do what he wants as long he doesn’t contravene the laws. The following is how Ms. Nabakooba went on to explain what was going on: “The incident happened very early in the morning at around 6:30am as police were just on a normal routine check patrol point. They would check every vehicle that would bypass them. In the course [of their duties], they stopped her (Mrs Besigye’s) driver. She refused even to open the windows. She stayed adamant in the vehicle; nobody knew who was inside because it wasn’t their official vehicle. Because they were not ready to obey what police was telling them like opening the windows for police to see inside, the windows were tinted and they were up. Police had to tow the vehicle to the station. When they reached the station they came out, Winnie, some other person and the driver.”
“They told me it wasn’t their official vehicle, they [police] were just checking on normal routine,” said Ms. Nabakooba, whilst responding to whether the vehicle Mrs Besigye was traveling in is not registered in Dr. Besigye’s names. Nabakooba added: “It was checked as is normal for any police officer. They can do a search, they can open a vehicle, and they can mount a search.”
“It was Winnie who was inside, they left them to go, however, they opened a file on the driver for disobeying the lawful order under the traffic road section,” she said without elaborating. She added: “If the police officer stopped you, why would you not stop? Why would you even refuse to open the window? Why would you like people to start speculating who is inside?”
Editor, this partisan force have embarrassed our nation. They were not checking every car, they were simply waiting on to see what car drives out of Besigye’s compound and get it towed. The good lesson they have learnt is not to smash Dr. Besigye’s car but to tow it away otherwise let them give us another good excuse of stopping Winnie. If they were not bothered about Dr. Besigye’s movements, then why pick on this particular car coming out of his gate? They were there because they knew that it was a Monday and Besigye had vowed to continue walking and they will be there on Thursday too.
Nabakooba has lied to the entire world. We heard rumours even before Besigye returned that government was getting a helicopter to fly him to his compound and keep him under house arrest. Careful of government’s plan, he refused the offer but the last one has come true.
Editor, initially the president and all his subordinates said that he will crush those who will walk to work. It became a song in Uganda that walk to work, get crushed and all ministers, police, army, permanent secretaries echoed this message. A sudden change later emerged after realizing that they would be defeated someday by protesters who had vowed to depose government if they cracked them down to the effect that people should walk to work because its normal and healthy and the president has never condemned walkers but said let people walk. It is believed that the international community had spent hours in meetings and passed an ultimatum giving the Ugandan leader less time to fix the situation.
What we now see days down the road is that with the increasing support not only in Uganda but world wide of the main opposition leader, any injury on him sparks off a riot so the best thing to do is to keep him under house arrest. Today, people are hitting on look-alikes of perpetrators of injury on FDC leader. Many security operatives have suffered due to their brutal attack on the opposition and the government is beginning to realise that its wise not to injure Besigye. Restricting his movement will make people stop walking to work but they are wrong. People need solutions and are waiting for the president’s promises he made during the swearing in ceremony to come true. The police cannot earmark one leader and think it will solve the problems of the country, the walkers are bigger than just one person and solutions should start emerging.