Kizza Besigye sent back to Uganda prison, wife says

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was sent back to Luzira Prison in Kampala on Friday after more than a week in hospital, his wife Winnie Byanyima said, adding that the move went against medical advice.

Besigye had been admitted to intensive care in Kampala after collapsing on July 30 during a court hearing in his treason case. Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said on X that he was taken back to prison after 7 p.m.

“Why the rush to return a seriously ill man to prison before he can walk, talk or feed himself?” she wrote. “Who gave this order, and why was medical judgment overridden?”

Besigye, a former personal physician to President Yoweri Museveni, has opposed Uganda's government for more than 25 years. He was abducted during a trip to Kenya in November 2024 and later appeared before courts on treason charges after being accused of plotting a conspiracy against Museveni.

Shortly before he collapsed in court, Besigye had criticised the court's decision to impose lawyers on him. His main counsel, Erik Lukwago, had been arrested, and former Kenyan minister Martha Karua had been barred from entering Uganda.

Besigye has been taken to hospital three times since his detention, including briefly in February 2025 after a hunger strike. Byanyima has repeatedly criticised his detention conditions, describing them as inhumane and alleging a plot to kill him.

Uganda has imposed a widening crackdown on opposition figures, lawyers and independent media in recent months. Museveni has ruled Uganda for more than 40 years.