I did not plan this at all but I realised while reaching the gates of Luzira Maximum Prison that I was going to meet Col. Dr Kizza Besigye in the week of a general election.
I have walked past him before, but this would be the very first time I would be saying hello and having a direct conversation with him. I have said and written so much about this eminent Uganda.
The Observer newspaper has given me the opportunity to make so much noise about many things, and a bit of me felt Dr Besigye had read some of my angry ramblings. Then NUP’s Eddie Mutwe allayed my fears when he told me about a discussion, he had overheard where Dr Kizza Besigye and his comrade, Hajji Obed Lutale discussed my media appearance.
Before meeting Dr Kizza Besigye and Hajj Lutale, I had asked to say hello to brother Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro. You cannot be a fan of Hon. Francis Zaake without appreciating Waiswa Mufumbiro’s energy and activism.
It was surreal. Besigye came to the booth slightly frail, but resolute. He was first to speak telling me it was “a pleasant surprise,” I had checked on them, and they had thought I was out of the country before they watched me on TV a couple of nights before.
It was all beautiful knowing this worthy Ugandan followed this scrawny columnist. When I said to Dr Besigye that I was meeting him for the first time, he gave that trademark Besigye mirthless laughter, clutched the iron bars separating us, and noted, “and look at the circumstances of our first meeting, with these bars between us.”
He then later added, “but it is all one big prison, inside or outside, it is just the circumstances that are different.”
It was Kizza Besigye being Kizza Besigye reminding us over our collective capture. As I have argued plenty of times, this man, without holding a single office in the country, he has held Uganda together.
He had the option to try the violent course when he enjoyed a genuine cult following in the period between 2001-2016 when he last stood for president. Then, he was younger and more ebullient.
But he didn’t choose violence. I still think he would have lost had he chosen the direction of armed rebellion. But here is the catch: Uganda would never be the same. Violent rebellion does not leave the country the way it found it.
I should admit, dear reader, I was among those who endlessly wondered why Col. Besigye, and Gen. Mugisha Muntu – men with military background – never considered the direction of armed rebellion.
Perhaps it was because of their military background that they had sworn not to return to violence. Anyways, with hindsight, it makes more sense now that the ruins we have painfully endured under Gen. Museveni, pale in comparison of what war can bring.
Sadly, it will not be Dr Kizza Besigye nor will it be Bobi Wine (even if he called for protests, which are protected within the constitution) to dismantle the bubble that Museveni and co- conspirators appear to enjoy.
To his credit, Gen. Museveni has successfully emasculated the opposition to the point that it presents no credible challenge to his hold onto power. But unbeknownst to him and co., Yoweri Museveni is his own opposition.
He is his own enemy. The devil is inside the state palace. Allowing his most selfish instincts to win and hold onto power when he is so exhausted and tired has instead created space for cartels of thieves working inside his own house to exploit the vacuum he has ironically created by his hold onto power.
To this end, we are looking at an explosion from the inside when internal wrangling and pushing and shoving reaches its peak. Dear reader our prisons are full. Foucault readers know that prisons are a form of government.
The claim that prisons were built to deal with crime has been exposed in a great deal of scholarship. Prisons are an extension of the protections that capitalism enjoys, but also a tool of power – a technology of government from the colonial period to the present.
For its inmates and their loved ones, prison is exhausting and humiliating on either side. Talking to your wife, your sister, you child through a telephone and a glass is unimaginably painful.
Despite being clearly tired from being locked up, Dr Besigye looked upbeat, and sharp as usual. He asked me about my wranglings with Makerere University (he’s been following), and we both laughed at how this once glorious university as an occupied space like everything else in Uganda.
We laughed so hard about Justice Baguma, the man presiding over their case, and the airs this Justice exudes like he actually owned Uganda. We spoke about Justice Owiny-Dollo retirement and laughed out loud when we mutually agreed that Uganda might go for a long time without a substantive Chief Justice as happened with Bank of Uganda, which went for over two years without a governor.
“Do they even care that his retirement is this week?” Like his co-accused, Hajji Obed Lutale was in equally stronger spirits. He told me about the prison warder of the 1979 who were conspiring to kill his father, Sheikh Obed Kamulegeya, and the plot failed because the Tanzanian forces reached Kampala the day it had to be executed.
Years later, he met his father’s then all-powerful prison warder later in Sudan living homeless. Power is transient. We spoke about our constituency as Muslims, and reminded ourselves about the words of Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata Batte, about how rudderless and almost orphaned the Muslim community seems to have become.
The interesting bit is that today’s prison warders are fans of their prisoners. But find themselves as part of the larger prison called Uganda.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
Incidentally, prison in Uganda has lost the stigma it once had. I many cases, it is even viewed as a badge honor, a rite of passage.
Truth be told, in the history of Uganda the word prison has never been as commonplace as it is now. Simply said prison is no longer exclusively a place for criminals.
Yusuf, don’t waste our time. You’re a Museveni supporter.
Dr KB forever.
Lysol,
Ugthinker, thanks.
Is there any reason Ugandans let Rwandese Museveni use them against one another for 45 years?
Bobi Wine should be ashamed & must apologyse for helping Rwandese Museveni continue owning Uganda constitutionally with the last useless fake presidential election!
Ugandans, please, do not go for next useless fake parliamentary election that will bolster Rwandese Museveni for 45 years!
Yet even as it is, NO to the tribalistic system with & just ONE Real National/Common Leader & Ugandans coming out to block Museveni will give chance to live without him & family!
Why are tribal leaders still in posts ensuring powerless tribally divided ruled Ugandans are slaves of Rwandese Museveni & family, in the zone formed by their tribal lands?
How will Rwandese Museveni fight UNITED Ugandans & wchich tribal land will be his base & which tribes will join him?
Who will impose Rwandese Museveni on UNITED Ugandans?
Ugandans, please WAKE UP, NOW!
Akot, your call for unity is noble, but it ignores the lucrative rot at our core. We aren’t just divided; we are addicted to the ‘theatre of blood’ that Museveni calls an election. While our people are kidnapped and left to rot in dungeons, the political class—both ‘Yellow’ and ‘Red’—is busy cashing in on the tragedy. Ugandans have become the world’s most pathetic spectators, sandwiched between a master of deceit (M7) and a professional merchant of illusions (Kyagulanyi). M7 loots the treasury while Kyagulanyi loots our hope, and both ensure it remains ‘business as usual’ so the taxpayer money keeps flowing. We aren’t stuck; we are being held hostage by two sides of the same coin.
Don’t get me wrong, consistency is fine, Akot, but unity is impossible among a people this gullible. We have allowed ourselves to be trapped in a perpetual cycle of state-sponsored violence and ‘opposition’ theatrics. M7 kills and kidnaps to maintain his grip, while Kyagulanyi sells us the lie that ‘speaking up’ is a substitute for a revolution. It is a nauseating quagmire. M7 intends to ruin this country until the end of time, and he is able to do so because he has a ‘skilled liar’ as an opponent who keeps the masses occupied with hashtags instead of a national shutdown. We are being pillaged by a dictatorship and pacified by a fraud [fugazi].
Akot, we can’t unite when the struggle has been turned into a business. The 2026 ‘election’ was just another violent harvest for the regime and another fundraising opportunity for Kyagulanyi. While thousands rot in torture chambers, the ‘Big Two’ continue their dance. One is a power-maniac looting us naked; the other is a performative activist skilled at keeping the status quo profitable. Ugandans are the ultimate losers, trapped between a tyrant and a pretender. Until we admit that Kyagulanyi is the grease on M7’s wheels, fundamental change will remain a pipe dream while the country is sold off piece and/or by piece.
Akot, our calls for unity fall on deaf ears because the ‘struggle’ has been hijacked by cowards and collaborators. How did we stomach a ‘bogus and violent’ election while the very souls of our movement, Dr. Besigye and Dr. Bireete, were being broken in dungeons? As Besigye lies critically ill, denied the basic humanity of medical care, Kyagulanyi’s silence is deafening—it is a betrayal of every drop of blood spilled since November 2020. While Muhoozi and his father treat Ugandan lives like disposable trash—slaughtering ten people at Muwanga Kivumbi’s home with total impunity—Kyagulanyi is playing games. Muhoozi demands Kyagulanyi’s submission, and in response, Kyagulanyi merely asks us to ‘speak up.’ This isn’t leadership; it’s a death sentence for the revolution.
Fellow Ugandans, Kyagulanyi’s messages from hiding are a masterclass in performative defiance. While he calls for Ugandans to ‘speak up,’ our brothers and sisters—including Besigye and Bireete—are rotting in torture chambers. Merely ‘speaking up’ against a blood-soaked autocracy is like whistling in a hurricane. By refusing to call for a total national shutdown or a coordinated revolt, he reveals his true intent: preserving the status quo. He isn’t a revolutionist; he is a beneficiary of the very system he critiques, carefully ensuring the ‘business as usual’ model continues so his access to taxpayer-funded privilege remains untouched while the nation bleeds.
With over 200 citizens missing and thousands more undergoing unspeakable torture, Kyagulanyi’s latest plea to ‘not remain silent’ is an insult to the victims. We don’t need more ‘messages’ or hashtags; we need a revolution. His refusal to lead a national revolt or demand a total shutdown is a calculated betrayal. It is clear now: Kyagulanyi is more interested in maintaining his position as a ‘controlled opposition’ than in achieving fundamental change. While he hides and issues vague calls to action, he continues to feast on the same taxpayer money that funds the regime’s torture chambers. He is a merchant of hope who refuses to deliver the fire.
In other words, Kyagulanyi tells us MPs won’t help, yet he offers nothing but empty words. In a 2026 Uganda where Besigye and Bireete are silenced in dungeons, calling for people to ‘speak up’ is a joke. It’s a deliberate tactic to avoid a real revolution that would threaten his own comfort. By refusing to call for a national shutdown, he is effectively protecting the autocracy. He isn’t leading a struggle; he’s managing a brand. He wants just enough noise to stay relevant, but not enough fire to burn down the system that pays his salary. This isn’t leadership—it’s complicity.
Dr., Dr. Yusuf, you should thank God/Allah to have met Dr. Besigye in Prison while alive.
Two days ago, the wife/partner, Hon Winnie Byanyima sounded the Biblical proportion lonely voice/distraught in the wilderness; about Dr. Besigye’s state of health behind the indefinite imprisonment.
In other words, while the Prison’s authority is in vehement denial about the dire state of Dr. Besigye’s health; BUT according to our 86-year-old PROBLEM OF AFRICA, Gen Tibuhaburwa and his diabolic son Gen Muhoozi; Dr. Besigye will not come out prison alive.
But if he did/does come out alive, he will be HANGED IN GULU.
I wonder why: instead of preparing to hang Dr. Besigye in their compound in Rwakitura, Gen Muhoozi prefers to commit the diabolic abomination (kisirani) of hanging Dr. Besigye in Gulu, especially where his Step Uncle Gen Salim Saleh, is the Governor of Greater Northern Uganda?