We might never see a revolutionary of his calibre in the modern times – a civilian revolutionary ready to exploit all civil channels for reform in his country despite a history in the military.
We are talking Nelson Mandela levels. Or Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. Civil, resolute, ceaseless. Even when the entire country is gripped in fear, even when his life is on the line, the man soldiers on, unshaken.
It is difficult to say, but unlike many others, it is arguable that Dr Kizza Besigye successfully captured his fear of death: What type of bravery and determination is this? Before fainting in Justice Emmanuel Baguma’s court (what a court, that is!), Dr Besigye had held a one-man protest the whole time: Still handcuffed, he had kept shouting to interrupt the proceedings imposed on him as his lawyers of choice have been denied the chance to do their work.
When his handcuffs were removed, he turned to banging tables, demanding respect for his constitutional rights. Then slowly, without stopping, lost his grip and fell to the ground.
To paraphrase, Mark Anthony on Julius Caesar: What a fall there was fellow countrymen, and you and I all fell on the ground. Had it not been for a thoroughly emasculated public, this would have been a defining moment in Uganda’s judicial history.
Dr Besigye must he wondering how the entire country has been so successfully softened and weakened about our civil rights and responsibilities especially the right to protest and demonstrate injustice as enshrined in Article 29 of the 1995 Constitution.
We all lowered our heads, carried on eking an existence and talking in whispers. We had all witnessed something despicable, and simply walked away in silence. With all the abductions, kidnaps, threats to individuals, media shutdowns, impoverishment, and forced exile, fear clouds the entire country.
“Exile” has become a keyword in conversations. Somone said to me that us, regular people, cannot imagine the absolute levels of fear and trepidation inside the NRM camp. Many supposedly NRM-diehards – politicians and senior civil servants – have already secured residence and citizenship for entire families abroad.
Many see Uganda, their birthplace, as a volatile workstation, which they will soon escape and enjoy the beautiful lives abroad. What country are we building?
THE IRONIES OF FAKE INTELLIGENCE
You could tell the weight of the entire country rested on the shoulders this man, Dr. Besigye. This is not necessarily a search for constitutionalism or democracy. Rather a search for common sense – for our collective humanity as senior advocate Daudi Mpanga has constantly reminded us.
What authority, what supreme leadership entertains this sort of tragic drama where a supposed court of justice insists on prosecuting a man whose health is collapsing before their eyes?
One of the biggest ironies of this Besigye trial is that the department responsible for collecting intelligence – including the intelligence against which Dr Kizza Besigye and his associate Obeid Lutale are being prosecuted – are currently in jail for faking intelligence in their department.
Most notable is the former boss of the Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Birungi who was arrested in August 2025. Alongside other officers, he remains in jail on accusations that they “fabricated intelligence reports [that] were used to obtain operational funds.”
It is reported that this “false intelligence is also linked to security operations in which civilians were shot and wrongly presented as suspected suicide bombers … at Kalerwe Market and near the Catholic Shrine in Munyonyo during Martyrs’ Day celebrations.”
How credible then is the rest of the intelligence that CMI gathered? There is more irony: “Birungi is among the people who were listed as State Witnesses in the case against Col Dr Kizza Besigye, Obeid Lutale and Captain Denis Oola who are accused of treason, plotting to overthrow the legitimate government. Now Birungi is equally facing similar charges that attract death once found guilty,” The Independent reported.
There is more: in a story titled, “State House and Security agencies under Siege,” The Independent tells us that about the same time there was a plan to kill President Yoweri Museveni, there was also a plan to kill President William Ruto.
In both cases, intelligence originated from Uganda. In Kenya, the intelligence community dismissed the Ugandan intelligence officer called Amon as fake.
Although “According to sources close to State House, Amon’s lies were [more] believable.” On the second try, Amon was even more dramatic and “told Ruto that Museveni was the one planning to kill the Kenyan president.”
Remember, Museveni had personally sent Amon to President Ruto. We are told Amon is currently in Luzira. But in Uganda, the state believed its intelligence and is still prosecuting the alleged perpetrators. They have now added their lawyer, Erias Lukwago.
Where is the common sense in all of this drama? Amidst all this circus, I cannot help but think about Dr Besigye’s main protagonist, Justice Baguma. He might be talking tough, but psychoanalytically, Justice Baguma is as scared as the entire country.
There is nothing nobler than a justice recusing oneself from a matter once the respondent makes the application. Confidence comes with empathy and caution. Had Justice Baguma been confident enough, he would be more empathetic to Dr Besigye’s health, and would have had a sense of foreboding about the credibility of the evidence before him, especially that the “intelligence officers” who generated it are battling cases of faking intelligence reports.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
This is a brilliant article . Its feels so good to notice that Mwami Sserunkuma is back where he belongs: with the oppressed .
“our collective humanity” should be our shield against the menace of “Stockholm Syndrome “. The truth is that not all us are going to be as visibly brave as Dr. Besigye , but anyone of us can activate the capacity to resist the it-is-what-it- is convenience demeanor
. We can exercise the option of refusing to submerge .After all ” Ennyanja Ekutta Omira ”
As Dr.Besigye lies in ICU half alive , as Mr.Erias Lukwago fights for his life inside of a jail , as Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi deals with the trauma of having watched as his associates being gunned down inside his house , as Oliva Lutaaya , Sauda Madada and hundreds of innocent Ugandans rot in jails , these people need to hear our collective voices of outrage .
As our tormenters fabricate evidence , rig elections , abduct and torture as they please , they must hear our protesting voices-voices of clamor
Let’s us pray for our country Uganda.
GOD help our country Uganda,GOD remember your son Dr Bessegye.
Doc, we are dealing with an individual drunk on power. Museveni is acting under that influence, driven by a violent nature and the belief that he and his family are exclusively ordained to rule Uganda for life. He even declared war before the 1980 elections, vowing to head to the bush and capture power by force. Yet, no one kidnapped or tortured him then the way he does to innocent Ugandans today. No one has faced the level of persecution inflicted on Besigye since he first challenged the regime in 2001. Museveni never fought for democratic change; he fought to own Uganda outright, succeeding through sheer greed.
Besigye has consistently maintained that elections will never bring change to Uganda, which is why many of us see his strategy as our path to liberation. To make himself relevant, Kyagulanyi actively undermined Besigye, branding him a four-time loser. In doing so, Kyagulanyi inadvertently misled the nation into believing Uganda possesses a functioning democracy where Museveni simply wins elections fairly, framing Besigye as the sole problem.
Kyagulanyi knows how heartless Museveni is, yet he lied to the public and led us into violent, bogus polls a second time under slogans like Kakonge Kuume and Kabanje. Now, even ordinary citizens are caught in this terror—like the heartbreaking story of a father arrested at Mulago Hospital simply for visiting a patient in the bed opposite Besigye. To this paranoid regime, being in the wrong hospital ward is treated as treason.
Museveni relies entirely on militarism to terrorize us into submission. He cannot envision a Uganda without himself at the helm, which is why he threatens that the country will become like Mogadishu if he falls. His son now commands heavily armed militants deployed across every corner of the nation. Fellow Ugandans, our true liberation will only begin when we realize that Kyagulanyi is leading us straight into Museveni’s trap of compromised, fraudulent elections designed strictly for financial gain.
What you are witnessing in Uganda is the oil curse in motion.
It appears the 1st family is obssesed with owning Uganda oil…Saudi style. Saudi Arabia’s wealth is primarily derived from its vast oil reserves, controlled by the royal family. The House of Saud, the ruling dynasty, has been in power since 1932 and has built its fortune largely through the oil industry, particularly via Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s most valuable companies.
The discovery of oil in the 1930s transformed the country’s economy and established the House of Saud as the wealthiest royal family globally, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 trillion.
But Dr., Dr. Yusuf, haven’t you heard the Weatherman’s Paradox of “the CALM BEFORE THE STORM?
Except sadism, why do Gen Tibuhaburwa and son (NRM) take pleasure in an ill Dr. Besigye and Hon Lukwago chained to their hospital beds, while their bloody, ugly Boots are on Sam Mugumya’s neck?
While it is a presidential rallying- do or die cry for the regime apologists and beneficiaries to jealously to protect their 45 years and counting loot/gains; millions of the rest of Ugandans gained nothing, and therefore have nothing to LOSE.
In other words, it is a self-deception to think that: the 45 years and counting of a blood stained regime, has “successfully softened and weakened about our civil rights and responsibilities especially the right to protest and demonstrate injustice as enshrined in Article 29 of the 1995 Constitution”!
E.g., in the whole wide world (www): since when do self-confessed and glorified criminals abduct innocent countrymen, women and children, torture them in dungeons, maliciously charge them with trumped up capital offenses, indefinitely imprison them (6 years) and wake up one morning; compel them into false confession of plea of guilt and pardon them outside the constitutional court system/procedure?
HELL NO!
Lakwena, you make an incredible point with that observation. Truly, in what civilized world do self-confessed criminals abduct innocent citizens, torture them in dungeons, and slam them with trumped-up capital charges? To jail them for six years, force them into false guilty pleas, and then grant ‘pardons’ completely outside the constitutional court system is monstrous.
It makes me ask: where are our minds? Why do we allow this to happen year after year? Our state was captured long ago, and conditions deteriorate by the minute, yet we continue with business as usual. Countless innocent lives have been claimed by this torture—Muhammad Ssegirinya, Jakana Nadduli, and so many others—not to mention the missing and the hundreds rotting in dark chambers.
Yet, driven by an insurmountable greed for money that mirrors Museveni’s own avarice, Kyagulanyi continuously leads us into these fugazi, fraudulent Kalonde, Ka Kuume, and Kabanje election cycles. While he plays these games for financial gain, the main pillar of our struggle, Dr. Kizza Besigye, remains abducted and tortured in state custody. Meanwhile, after predictably losing to the predetermined winner Museveni, Kyagulanyi simply flees the country for the safe haven of the USA. From there, Kyagulanyi instructed NUP to go swear into their elective positions and continue collecting taxpayers’ money as the true goal of Kalonde, Ka Kuume, and Kabanje! These charades only enrich a few elite politicians who quickly return to business as usual, while our country is left to bleed endlessly.