Former Forum for Democratic Change presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye has decried the manner in which police treated his visitors and later his arrest on Monday at his home in Kasangati, Wakiso district.
Besigye was arrested after fighting with police officers who had blocked his visitors led by Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago from accessing his home.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Besigye said it was annoying for police to stop people who had come to visit him.
“I waited because they had said they had come. It was after some time that I found out they had been stopped at the main entrance,” Besigye said in reference to his guests.
Photos and video footage of police in a scuffle with Besigye and his supporters enraged the nation.
Kampala South RPC Geoffrey Kaheebwa speaks to Besigye outside Kampala High Court
Police accuse Besigye of spearheading plans to destabilize the country after losing the 2016 presidential elections.
The law enforcement body’s spokesperson Andrew Kaweesi said it was high time opposition politicians gave the people of Kampala a break from violence.
Describing the city center as a garden for those who stay in Kampala, the police mouthpiece accused the opposition strongman of being an angle of violence in Uganda’s capital.
Besigye waving at his supporters along Kampala Road
Arrest
Besigye narrated that he tried to find out why his guests were being stopped upon being informed of a police blockade.
“I decided to go down to see what exactly had happened,” said Besigye, adding that it was wrong for police to continue caging him at his own home on top of disturbing his visitors .
Besigye condemned the police conduct that saw if forcefully arrested and dragged into a waiting van to Naggalama police station for detention.
“This clearly shows that I have no home but rather a prison. I am either detained here in Kasangati or in a police station – which is wrong,” he noted.
Besigye leaves his Kasangati residence on Monday morning
“With such chaotic incidents like the one of yesterday where I was mishandled and taken to Naggalama continuing to happen, no serious investors can come to our country. We shall see the economy continuing to collapse,” he warned.
On his part, Kaweesi said, “When some of them (politicians) are not in the country, the city is as peaceful as we want. When they return, you hear tensions here and there.”
He said the police are much more determined to ensure no one disrupts peace in the city.
“It is our resolve that we don’t even want to discuss. We want to sound a serious warning to politicians in the city about demonstrations.”