I’LL BEGIN FROM WHERE I STOPPED: Besigye Vows to Keep ‘Awakening Protests’ after Being Released form Prison

Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has vowed to resume his protests to awaken Ugandans to start pushing for a reduction in the rising commodity prices and cost of living as well as to reject the rumored Museveni-Muhoozi succession plot. 

At about 4pm on June 06, Besigye was released on bail after spending almost two weeks in Luzira Prison for inciting violence. Buganda Road Magistrate Sienna Owomugisha had granted Besigye a Shs30m cash bail, which President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s fiercest critic rejected and opted to go on remand.

But Besigye’s lawyers, led by his People’s Government and People’s Front for Transition (PFT Red Card Front) deputy Erias Lukwago, the Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor, challenged Magistrate Owomugisha’s Shs30m cash bail requirement.

On June 06, Justice Michael Elubu of the High Court reviewed the Shs30m bail requirement to Shs3m. The judge described the lower court’s bail condition as “manifestly harsh and excessive” and as occasioning “a miscarriage of justice.”

“The trial magistrate correctly stated that bail terms imposed should be a safeguard that once released on bail, the accused will return for his trial. That is as it should be,” ruled Justice Elubu in his ruling dated June 03.

“However, taking all circumstances of the case into consideration, it is my considered opinion that the learned trial magistrate exercised her discretion with a material irregularity when she set the bail condition at Shs30 million.”

Besigye’s lawyers still insisted that the Shs3m was still unreasonable. “We have our reservations in regards to Shs3m cash bail condition reviewed by the judge. If Dr Kizza Besigye was to be convicted of incitement to violence, he would be sentenced to three years in prison or a fine of Shs1.4m. Why should the bail be higher than the fine upon conviction?” said Lukwago.

But they would later pay the money to allow Besigye gain his freedom from Luzira Prison. After officially being freed by Buganda Road Court, Besigye and his supporters walked to the Kampala Central Police Station to pick his vehicle which had been parked at the CPS following his arrest last month.

Police would whisk Besigye into a vehicle and drive him to his Kasangati home. Before he was driven away, the veteran politician and freedom fighter vowed to “begin where he stopped” in as far as “awakening” Ugandans is concerned.

Nearly two weeks ago, Besigye beat heavy security deployed at his Kasangati home to hold protests in the Kampala City Centre. (Read Story Here).

BESIGYE’S ISSUES

RISING COMMODITY PRICES

Prices of goods have risen across the country. The Museveni Government has attributed the skyrocketing prices on external factors. Besigye and his colleagues in the PFT Red Card Front say the president has failed to offer any tangible solutions for citizens surviving in an economy battered by the effects of the Covid19 pandemic.

In one of President Museveni’s recent speeches, he told Ugandans to eat cassava if they cannot find or afford bread, a piece of advice akin to what Marie Antoinette gave peasants complaining of the prices of bread before the French Revolution. (Read Story Here).

Besigye has also told Museveni to reduce the size of his government and to fire Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) and their deputies so that they can go home and grow more cassava for the Cassava Republic. (Read Story Here).

At the weekend, Museveni used over one hour to explain to Ugandans why the prices of commodities had increased. He also attempted to justify the state of the economy. His advice, generally, was that Ugandans should increase production and shun imported goods. (Read Full Speech Here).

MUHOOZI-MUSEVENI SUCCESSION

In power since 1986, Museveni is currently aged 77 and will have ruled Uganda for four decades by the end of his current five-year term in 2026. Using his recently concluded — or rather unending — 48th birthday parties across the country, Lt Gen Kainerugaba, who is also the Commander of UPDF Land Forces, to hint on a possible presidential bid.

Besigye has called on Ugandans to rise up and oppose the Museveni-Muhoozi Succession, a project that former spymaster Gen David Sejusa (Tinyefuuza) hinted on in 2013. The opposition leader says citizens must rise up and demand a meaningful transition from military to civilian rule.

A retired colonel, Besigye has since made it clear that he would never salute Muhoozi even if he became president, becoming the second former bush war fighter to openly say so. (Read Story Here).

Erias Lukwago, Besigye’s deputy at the PFT, described Muhoozi as ‘a very reckless general with nothing but the gun and a birth certificate indicating that Gen Museveni is his father. (Read Story Here).

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