The wife of detained Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has voiced deep concern over his deteriorating health as he continues a hunger strike in protest against his detention.
Nearly a week after beginning his strike on February 10, Besigye, 68, remains in a fragile state, his lawyer describing him as critically ill.
Besigye, a long-standing political opponent of President Yoweri Museveni—who has ruled Uganda for nearly four decades—has challenged him unsuccessfully in four presidential elections.
He is currently facing trial for “threatening national security” and has resorted to refusing food and consuming only water as an act of protest against what he calls an unlawful detention.
Speaking on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday, Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said she was very worried about his condition.
“He says it’s his only act of protest at the illegal detention that he’s being put through,” she told AFP. She added that when she last saw him in court on Friday, he appeared very frail and dehydrated.
Besigye was reportedly abducted in Kenya in November and has been facing the death penalty on treason charges in a military court.
Despite a ruling from Uganda’s Supreme Court last month that civilians should not be tried in military courts, President Museveni has rejected the decision, allowing the prosecution to continue.
Byanyima has condemned the trial as a sham, stressing that her husband’s fate is not just about him but about the future of democracy and human rights in Uganda.
“If this happens to him, that he continues to be held illegally, that some trumped-up process is used to convict him, this is not just about him; it’s about the fate of democracy and the rights of Ugandans,” she said.
The United Nations and multiple human rights organisations have raised alarm over the Ugandan government’s suppression of political opposition ahead of the 2026 presidential election.
Amnesty International denounced Besigye’s case as a “travesty of justice,” further intensifying international scrutiny of Museveni’s government.
