Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has criticized opposition figure Kizza Besigye’s hunger strike, describing it as an ‘unprincipled blackmail.’
Museveni in a statement Tuesday addressed concerns surrounding the detained opposition leader’s health, emphasizing that the government has ensured adequate medical care.
He asserted that the opposition leader has access to government medical facilities in prison and has also been attended to by his personal doctors at private clinics.
“If there was need for any additional medical care, the Government would be advised. However, in this case, Dr. Besigye was on hunger strike,” read his statement in part.
“That is part of the cause for his weakness that we could see in the pictures that were in the newspapers. Is that not unprincipled blackmail?”
The Ugandan leader questioned Besigye’s use of a hunger strike as a means to gain public sympathy and push for bail, rather than seeking a quick trial to address the charges against him.
Museveni also sought to reframe the public discourse, urging Ugandans to focus on why Besigye was arrested rather than his detention conditions.
Besigye, a longtime critic of the Museveni administration and a former presidential candidate, was arrested in Nairobi’s Riverside area last year on allegations of planning to jeopardize Uganda’s security infrastructure.
He would later be charged in a military court with illegal possession of a firearm, threatening national security, as well as treachery, which carries the death sentence. He denies the accusations.
His supporters have called for his immediate release, citing concerns over his health and the political nature of the charges against him.
Besigye’s arrest and hunger strike have sparked a renewed debate over political freedoms in Uganda, with human rights groups calling for due process and fair treatment in his trial.
The opposition has accused the government of using unconstitutional tactics to suppress dissent, a claim the authorities have denied.
Museveni’s remarks come on the back of calls for his unconditional release from the international community including a statement by human right defenders among them Amnesty International.
