Besigye resumes protests hours to budget reading, arrested

Four time presidential candidate and leader of the People’s Front for Transition (PFT), Kizza Besigye has been arrested hours to the budget reading on Tuesday.

The opposition strongman had earlier on managed to beat security, and made his way to downtown Kampala in what was a resumption of his “wake up call” protests against high commodity prices.

Armed with a megaphone, Besigye, who was clad in his favourite blue shirt atop his Toyota Land Cruiser said that Ugandans should not fund Museveni’s government in the financial year 2022/23.

“The new (financial) year is here, we should not fund Museveni,” Besigye said.

A joint force of police and UPDF military officers however intercepted his protest, forced Besigye back in his car, before towing the car away from the crowd.

By the time of writing this report, Besigye was being detained at CPS under heavy military deployment.

Besigye first announced his protests in May 2022, at a time when many Ugandans were complaining about the increasing cost of consumer commodities and the lack of government intervention.

His efforts have been foiled at every attempt, as police deploys and arrests him he can address any crowds for a significant amount of time.

On May 24, 2022 Besigye had seemingly managed to beat security at his home as he surfaced in the city centre, before he was arrested and dragged to the Central Police Station.

Besigye was later charged for incitement of violence and asked to pay shs30 million in bail, a figure he described as exorbitant and opted to go to jail.

His lawyers led by Erias Lukwago appealed against the decision and court reduced the figure to shs 3 million.