Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni is believed to have began clamp down on opposition Presidential candidates as police in the country have arrested two presidential hopefuls and an aide to one of the politicians ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Reports said that the former Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, a challenger to President Yoweri Museveni as the incumbent candidate in the 2016 elections, was arrested while he was on his way to meet supporters in an eastern Ugandan town near the Kenyan border.
The other detainee was three-time presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye who has been detained for his political activities numerous times. He was arrested outside his home near Kampala, the Ugandan capital as he headed out to address a rally, according to his aide Francis Mwijukye.
Andrew Felix Kawesi, Uganda Police operations commander, appeared on local television station NSB confirming the arrests to journalists in Njeru, a town just outside Kampala.
“I am telling you … I am the police and I have arrested him. He has to stick to what the law requires … there’s no going to Mbale. He’s now under incarceration,” Kawesi said.
Mbabazi was travelling to Mbale, a town near Uganda’s border with Kenya, to have a consultative meeting with his supporters and promote his candidature.
The police announced in June that Mbabazi was banned from holding meetings about his challenge to Museveni, because their party had yet to nominate a candidate.
Mbabazi had a good relationship with Museveni, who has been Uganda’s leader since 1986. Ties between them have been strained in recent years because Museveni accused Mbabazi of making decisions in the ruling party without consulting him. Museveni sacked Mbabazi from the Prime Minister position in 2014.
There are concerns within the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), that President Museveni is grooming his son to be president when he dies. President Museveni has been Uganda’s head of state since he overthrew President Milton Obote in a 1986 coup.
The ruling National Resistance Movement has endorsed Museveni to represent them in next year’s election.
There are concerns within the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), that President Museveni is grooming his son to be president when he dies. President Museveni has been Uganda’s head of state since he overthrew President Milton Obote in a 1986 coup. [myad]
