Kampala, Uganda – Veteran opposition figure and four-time presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye is reportedly enduring degrading conditions in Luzira Prison, including an alleged bedbug infestation and severe isolation, according to the interim spokesperson of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), Ibrahim Ssemujju.
In an emotionally charged press briefing held earlier today in Kampala, Ssemujju delivered a stinging critique of the state’s treatment of political prisoners. Speaking to journalists and party members, he disclosed that Dr. Besigye, on remand since November 2024, confided in him during a recent prison visit, revealing that he had been relentlessly attacked by bedbugs and had not slept for several days.
“His life in Luzira has been made deliberately difficult,” said Ssemujju. “When you visit him, you only see him through a thick glass and speak through a call box. He’s being treated not as a political detainee but like a criminal meant to be broken.”
Besigye, one of Uganda’s most prominent political dissenters and former leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has been on remand under charges widely believed by allies to be politically motivated.
His detention has stirred renewed anger across Uganda’s opposition, particularly following Parliament’s recent passing of the controversial UPDF (Amendment) Bill.
The bill, which now permits the trial of civilians in military courts under broadened circumstances, has been described by critics as a legal hammer aimed at silencing dissent.
In a bold response, PFF’s Ssemujju announced that the party is compiling a public political record of every NRM Member of Parliament who supported the bill.
According to him, this will serve as a permanent reminder to the nation of those who sent civilians back to military courts in a democratic republic.
“History will judge them,” said Ssemujju, who vowed that PFF would launch an online platform to document the vote. “These are not representatives of the people, they are accessories to repression.”
The reported conditions in Luzira Prison, where Besigye is being held, paint a haunting picture. Being forced to speak to visitors only through a glass partition and a call box, combined with unhygienic sleeping conditions, amounts to what Ssemujju described as psychological torture.
Human rights organizations are now being urged to intervene and investigate the conditions under which high-profile political detainees are being held.
For a man who has spent much of his adult life in and out of jail for opposing the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), this is yet another dark chapter.
The development adds further pressure on Uganda’s political fabric, already strained by accusations of repression, shrinking democratic space, and mounting foreign criticism over internal human rights practices.
As the 2026 general elections inch closer, questions about the balance between national security and civil liberty are coming to the fore once again. The narrative around Besigye’s imprisonment may well become a lightning rod for wider resistance movements, not just among political elites but within the restless Ugandan youth, many of whom feel excluded.
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