Winnie Byanyima, the UNDP official and wife to the Uganda’s main opposition political leader, Dr. Kiiza Besigye was arrested on May 16, and taken to Kasangati police station where she spent a few hours.

Winnie Byanyima

The UN officer was arrested at her home gate in Kasangati as she was going to Entebbe Airport to board the 900AM British Airways flight to New York where she works as the Director for Gender in the Bureau for Development Policy at the UNDP (United Nations Development Program).

The security operatives hooked and towed the vehicle Baynyima was traveling in with her two aides and Besigye’s driver who was then driving.

Byanyima says that on reaching the police station she was told they wanted to arrest her husband who police expected to be aboard.

A disappointed Byanyima says she is going to consult her lawyers to sue the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura in court and ask for apology from the government.

Byanyima says that government has gone beyond to deny her husband his constitutional right of free movement and putting him under house arrest.

The police have been against Besigye’s walking on foot while going to work but this is the second time the police have attempted to arrest Besigye while driving. The first arrest in a vehicle was when Besigye was extraordinarily brutalized on April 28.

Dr. Besigye is the current President of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the main opposition party in Uganda.

By Issa Asuman