Forum for Democratic Change leader Dr. Kiiza Besigye was on Tuesday forced to stay at home after two attempts to walk to work on foot were foiled by heavy police deployment.
Dr. Besigye is participating in the re-launched walk to work campaign that started on Monday.
His first attempt was brought to a stop at Kasangati police station when police rounded him up with two of his aides Byamugisha Moses and Ndyomuhangi Martin. A URN reporter in the area says Byamugisha was kept at the Kasangati police station while Ndyomuhangi was beaten up by the police.
Besigye was accompanied to the Police station but was not given any reason for his detention. The Kawempe District Police Commander Stephen Tanui then ordered police officers to bundle him into a police mini bus registration number UP 1928 which drove and dropped him outside his gate.
However, a relentless Besigye then decided to use another passage from his home to walk. Upon reaching the path, Tanui and two police pick up trucks had already camped there.
Tanui ordered Besigye to return home and a war of words ensued with Tanui saying Besigye was under “detentive” arrest instead of preventive arrest. He promised to challenge police action at all levels if they do not charge him or allow him to exercise his rights.
//Cue in: You cannot detain people…”
Cue out:…..he must go back in his home, simple.”//
The FDC leader then turned and pretended to go home for him to go southwards through his garden escaping the police. Police officers kept tracking him until at a place called Masooli, where the police mini bus and pick up truck again intercepted him and drove off with him. Journalists were ordered to leave the scene or face arrest while Besigye was bundled up.
A few meters to his home, the mini bus and four other police pick up trucks packed by the road side until a UN car approached them. Sarah Toner, a human rights officer from the United Nations Human Rights office approached the officers who sped off and once again dumped Besigye outside his gate.
A defiant Besigye then insisted that he must be charged or else he shall not stop attempting to walk to work.
//Cue in: As you can see, there all…”
Cue out:.. to detain myself.”//
While police was tracking Besigye around his home, there were running battles going on at the trading centre between police and the residents. After Besigye’s first arrest, the residents turned rowdy and started pelting the police with stones.
Police then retaliated by firing tear gas and unleashed its pink water on the residents. Two men yet to be identified, who were riding on a motorcycle, were hit by a taxi. They were rushed to hospital by the Red Cross ambulance in critical condition.
The police are still heavily guarding Besigye’s home.
In April, Besigye was hospitalised in Nairobi after being battered and sprayed with pepper water by security operatives while on a walk to work campaign.
