Cape Town — Veteran opposition politician Dr. Kizza Besigye was admitted to the intensive care unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Wednesday after collapsing during a session of his treason trial at Kampala's High Court, according to his wife, Winnie Byanyima.
The 70-year-old, a four-time presidential challenger to President Yoweri Museveni, fell in the dock while objecting to being represented by lawyers appointed by the court. His objection came after his own defense team was disrupted - lead counsel Erias Lukwago is detained and charged with failing to report alleged acts of treason.
Witnesses said Besigye repeatedly interrupted proceedings before High Court judge Emmanuel Baguma, protesting against what he called an illegal trial, before collapsing. Byanyima, who serves as executive director of UNAIDS, wrote on social media that he cried out about being injured moments before losing consciousness.
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He was taken to Mbuya Military Hospital by ambulance before being transferred to Mulago Hospital, Uganda's largest public medical facility, under heavy security.
Byanyima described her husband's condition as critical, saying he remained unconscious, unable to speak, and unresponsive even to pain stimuli. She said he was refusing treatment from government medical staff and called for him to be allowed care from his personal physician at a private clinic instead.
That physician — Besigye's sister, Dr. Olive Kobusingye — was initially barred from seeing him but was later granted access to the ICU, which is being guarded by armed security personnel.
Besigye has been in custody since November 2024, when he and his aide, Obeid Lutale, were arrested in Kenya and returned to Uganda to face charges that were initially heard by a military tribunal before being moved to a civilian court and amended to treason, an offense that carries the death penalty. Both men deny the charges, which their lawyers and allies say are politically motivated.
A former physician and military aide to Museveni during the 1980s guerrilla war that brought him to power, Besigye later became one of the president's most prominent political rivals, running against him in four presidential elections.
