A Ugandan opposition leader who is running for president has been arrested while campaigning in the capital. Uganda has at least 15.3 million people eligible to vote in the February 18 elections, it said.
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“I am here to talk about Uganda, not about fiction”, Museveni said. “Whenever there are elections they teargas us and arrest us so how can we be expected to have a fair competition?”
They are Kizza Besigye, the veteran opposition leader, and Amama Mbabazi, a former prime minister and close ally of the president.
“They were firing tear gas, a lot of tear gas”, said FDC supporter Swaibu Mugalu, 32, describing how police blocked Besigye from holding a rally in central Kampala.
Several opposition supporters were arrested on Monday, said a Reuters photographer who also saw one person passed out in a large pool of blood, either dead or critically wounded.
“We do not know the nature of the charges against him”, he added.
Ahead of elections, there has been a substantial rise in the number of police deployed around Kampala, which is seen as an opposition stronghold.
Police in full riot gear could be seen in parts of downtown Kampala Central later on Monday, while in Wakiso District, police and army officers were on patrol as groups of Besigye supporters marched chanting through the streets.
Museveni, who is seeking re-election after serving for 30 years, warned the people to avoid being drawn into violence in the ongoing campaigns. We are not going to detain him.
Besigye was driven to a police station, before then being taken home by police, with police spokesman Onyango stressing he was “not under any form of arrest”.
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Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni dismissed as fiction attacks from rivals over allegations of corruption, unemployment and the state of healthcare in a televised debate on Saturday ahead of next week’s presidential election.
