Opposition politician and four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Mulago National Referral Hospital after collapsing during court proceedings on Wednesday.
Besigye was reportedly transferred to Mulago at about 8:20 pm under heavy security after initially being taken to Mbuya Military Hospital.
He collapsed during proceedings before High court judge Emmanuel Baguma after protesting the court’s decision requiring him to be represented by court-appointed lawyers Sylvia Namawejje, Julius Sserwambala and Sarah Awelo.
According to family members, only Besigye’s sister, Dr Hope Kobusingye, who is also his personal physician, was eventually granted access to him in the ICU after initially being denied access while he was still at court despite concerns about his condition.
His wife, Winnie Byanyima, later said Besigye had remained unconscious and unresponsive since his collapse.
“He is unconscious, unable to speak and unresponsive even to painful stimuli,” she said.
Besigye is jointly charged with treason alongside retired UPDF Capt Denis Oola and Hajji Obeid Lutale Kamulegeya.
The trial resumed on Wednesday after Justice Baguma ruled that proceedings would continue despite objections by Besigye and Lutale over legal representation. The two have insisted on being represented by lawyers of their own choice rather than advocates appointed under the state-funded legal aid scheme.
The case stems from allegations by the prosecution that Besigye and his co-accused participated in a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Prosecutors allege the accused held meetings in several countries, including Switzerland, Greece and Kenya, where plans to wage war against the Ugandan government were allegedly discussed. Besigye and his co-accused deny the charges.
The defence has challenged the credibility of the prosecution’s evidence, particularly that of state witness Orlando Andy Wilson.
One of Besigye’s lawyers, Eron Kiiza, has argued that Wilson has been presented by the prosecution as an arms dealer despite publicly describing himself as a private investigator, executive protection consultant, firearms trainer and military intelligence informant.
Kiiza contends that the prosecution has not produced evidence showing that Wilson held a firearms dealer’s licence or engaged in the sale of weapons. He has also questioned what he describes as inconsistencies in Wilson’s police statements regarding dates, travel and meetings central to the prosecution’s case.
Kiiza further criticised the charges of misprision of treason brought against former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, arguing that the prosecution has not alleged that Lukwago attended any of the meetings cited in the indictment or participated in the alleged conspiracy.
According to Kiiza, the prosecution instead relies on Lukwago’s political association with Besigye through the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), an approach he argues is insufficient to sustain the charge.
He also questioned the prosecution’s narrative that Wilson had been reporting developments to military intelligence over several years.
“If the authorities already knew everything, what exactly was Lukwago supposed to report? NOTHING. Misprision of treason requires actual knowledge of a specific treason and the concealment of information unknown to the authorities. It does not criminalise political office, friendship, or opposition politics,” Kiiza wrote on X.
The defence has additionally pointed to what it says is a discrepancy in the prosecution’s timeline. According to Kiiza, Orlando claims to have met Besigye in Geneva on January 24, 2024, yet well-documented records indicate Besigye was appearing before a Ugandan court and attending to media engagements between January 23 and 25, 2024.
At this rate: from abduction, been criminally trafficked from Nairobi to Makindye Barracks cross the Uganda Kenyan border, for a speedy General Court Martial trial; indefinite detention (2 years) without trial; denial of bail; the intimidation, arrest and deportation of Dr. Besigye’s Défense lawyers; forced appointment of total strangers as defence lawyers; etc even before the trial, ruling and penalty, the prosecution and Justice Baguma have already sentenced Dr. Besigye to death.
In other words, who in his/her right state of mind can still deny that: the Justice system in Uganda has been captured by an EVIL REGIME and has become an EVIL INSTITUTION (weaponized), to terrorize and molest whosoever is opposed to it?
Lakwena, your trademark phrase ‘in other words’ perfectly encapsulates your political clarity. You have remained remarkably consistent over the years. You correctly identified Museveni as Tibahabulwa—not just Uganda’s primary obstacle, but the overarching problem of Africa. While others foolishly appeal to M7’s non-existent conscience, you have correctly argued that four decades of escalating tyranny prove he will never reform. Look at how he treats his former personal doctor, Dr Kizza Besigye, who treated his illnesses and saved his life during the bush war. For merely defending the original ideals of that struggle, Besigye faces permanent state persecution. M7 is entirely cold-blooded and unbothered by human suffering. In other words, M7 is heartless, brutal, and devoid of a conscience.
The harsh reality is that external salvation is a myth. Liberation requires our own defiance. We must stand together and demand the immediate departure of Museveni and his junta. The Luwero bush war cost over a million lives, yet the state-sponsored terror inflicted on Kivumbi today mirrors the exact oppression that triggered that war. We are allowing this nightmare to persist because our opposition hierarchy has weaponized political resistance into a lucrative business venture, sharing taxpayer-funded spoils with M7. If prominent figures like Kivumbi and Lukwago are unsafe, imagine the fate of thousands of anonymous Ugandans disappearing daily into dark holes. The status quo thrives because our political elite prioritizes monthly checks over national liberation.M7 is a fixed variable; he will never reform. We must shift from pleading for concessions to actively demanding his exit. Unfortunately, NUP’s leadership remains trapped in a delusion of state benevolence. Kyagulanyi and his inner circle have built an authoritarian cult inside the opposition, labeling any independent thinker an agent of M7. It is now glaringly obvious that Kyagulanyi’s objective was to displace Besigye and consolidate NUP as the dominant, taxpayer-funded opposition party in Parliament. Having accomplished this financial milestone, the daily agony of Ugandans is ignored. By participating in M7’s stage-managed electoral circus rather than forcing a structural impasse, Kyagulanyi has effectively insulated the dictatorship.
This is why M7 speaks with supreme invincibility—he knows his opposition is house-trained.
Today, figures like Lubongoya, Ssenyonyi, Sseggona, and their cohorts are frantically running from court to court and police station to police station like headless chickens, trapped in a cycle that always returns to business as usual. They are operating under the delusional pretense that Uganda respects the rule of law and enjoys an abundance of democracy. In reality, innocent people are being systematically abducted and tortured. M7 and Muhoozi flatly deny holding them, but the moment these victims are produced, they are immediately charged with crimes they never committed. This systemic failure allows Muhoozi to boast with total impunity, even seeking authoritarian counsel from Kagame. This is exactly what I predicted during the election cycle when Kyagulanyi chanted ‘Kalonde, Kakuume, Kabanje.’ I warned that once the violent farce of the polls ended, the opposition would happily return to the legal sandbox and leave the citizens to suffer. Kyagulanyi proved my predictions completely accurate.
Remase, Nelson Mandela (RIP) who suffered an unjust 27-year imprisonment under the cold-bloody Apartheid regime said that: “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred (Long Walk to Freedom, pg751)”.
Who in his/her right state of mind can deny that: Gen Tibuhaburwa and bloody son Gen MK are prisoners of HATRED?
Going to bushes of Luweero to fight Obote’s Administration from Feb 1981, was not an act love, but vile HATRED.
Who in his/her right state of mind can deny that: the climax of one’s hatred is the murder/killing/destruction of other human beings.
And who in his/her right state of mind can deny that: whoever supports Gen Tibuhaburwa and son, is an accomplice HATRED, TERROR and the bloody MURDER of hundreds of thousands of innocent Ugandans?
In other words, who in his/her right state of mind would still deny that the death of Dr. Kiiza Besigye behind bars; as condemned by MK (Dr. will die in prison and/or hanged on Hero’s Day in Gulu), would quench our 86-years-old PROBLEM OF AFRICA, Gen Tibuhaburwa and son, Gen MK as well as the entire NRM ultimate HATRED for Dr. Besigye?
Lakwena, indeed, Museveni harbors a deeply entrenched, embedded hatred against Dr. Kizza Besigye because Besigye remains a constant thorn in the side of his lawless, life-presidency dictatorship. Besigye is a genuine pillar of the liberation struggle and was the very first insider to stand up and confront M7. Museveni knows that Besigye fully understands a fundamental truth: fraudulent, violent elections will never bring change to Uganda, and neither will mindless violence—only genuine people power can. Therefore, M7 is terrified that Besigye is entirely capable of uniting Ugandans to abandon these rigged electoral charades and exercise the collective power needed to eject him from office. That is exactly why Muhoozi publicly declared that Besigye should either die in prison or be hanged to death.
This begs the ultimate question: how can Besigye, or any other political prisoner, ever get justice in a broken system where anyone who speaks out against M7’s autocracy is either systematically persecuted or assassinated? The game plan for M7 and his son is simple: deny Ugandans the cohesive leadership necessary to mount a formidable struggle for change. They know that without real leadership, the population remains paralyzed by the fear of being targeted or killed. This is precisely why I fiercely oppose anyone who preaches and participates in these bogus, violent elections—they only serve to fracture us along lines of individual egos and political parties. By playing along, Kyagulanyi has given M7 absolute impunity to cement his lifetime dictatorship, and Muhoozi will stop at nothing to inherit and maintain that terror machinery.
Lakwena, you are absolutely right. It has never been historically proven that Milton Obote rigged the 1980 elections. On the other hand, Besigye legally proved that M7 rigs elections, only for Museveni to twist the arms of the Supreme Court judges, threatening and bribing them to rule that the rigged votes ‘did not substantially change the outcome.’ But think about the absurd contradiction: if the rigged votes didn’t change the outcome, why would M7 rig the elections in the first place? The truth is undeniable: M7 has never won a single legitimate election. He captured the state through the barrel of a gun and raw violence, and he has maintained his grip through those exact same brutal means ever since. Only genuine people power will ever eject M7 and his family from power. We must completely abandon the lucrative, fraudulent, and violent elections that only enrich M7 and Kyagulanyi while maintaining a brutal oppressive system and ensuring business as usual.