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Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS and wife of jailed opposition figure Dr Kizza Besigye, has said her husband will not have a fair trial.

In an interview with the BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga in New York, Ms Byanyima also said that under President Museveni’s leadership, Uganda has walked back on democracy and human rights—principles she and her husband, and others in the ruling NRM, had fought for.

“What is my concern is that it [trial] will not be fairly concluded,” she said. “Everything about this case has been in breach of the laws of Uganda—starting with how he was abducted from Kenya, bundled in a car and taken across the border at night, dumped in a military jail, dragged before a military court. We had to fight to take the case to the Supreme Court to ask for a ruling.” 

She said Besigye’s legal team got a ruling that paved the way for him to be tried in a civilian court. “But they would not release him even though the Supreme Court had announced that he should not be there. He had to go on hunger strike.”

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Ms Byanyima said Dr Besigye’s health has been adversely affected by prison conditions.

“He lives in squalid conditions. And he lives in solitary confinement. It has an impact on his mental health,” she said.

Dr Besigye has been incarcerated for one year and four months, Ms Byanyima said, and has been denied bail four times even though the law allows defendants who have been in jail for six months and have not had their cases heard to be granted bail. 

“They denied it to him and his friend. We have now seen the evidence they are bringing. It is fabricated. He is being framed. So we expect the judge to continue acting illegally, but we will also use the court process to expose the sham that it [trial] is,” she said.

Dr Besigye, who has challenged Mr Museveni in four presidential elections, was abducted in November 2024 with his aide, Obeid Lutale, who is also on remand in Luzira Prison.

During the 1981–1986 bush war that brought Mr Museveni to power, Dr Besigye served as the president’s personal doctor. He held cabinet positions after the NRM came to power but quit after realising that Mr Museveni had abandoned the movement’s objectives listed in the “The 10-Point Programme”.

In the interview, Ms Byanyima said that Mr Museveni has turned his administration into family rule.

“We did work together, but we fell out with him because as time went on, he distanced himself from the mission of the revolution, from the revolutionary movement itself,” she said.

“And we are not the only ones. Everyone who we were with in that revolution has walked away, disagreed or just retired and kept quiet. And he is now with people whom I could say are cynical. 

“They are with him because they benefit financially from the government. But outside they speak critically of the government they serve, so it is now family rule […]

“It is very much what we went out to fight against. It has been a tour of making progress on the democratic front, on the human rights front, and we are now walking backwards on democracy and human rights. It is a sad story.”

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Dr Besigye reappeared in court on March 31 with his co-accused and challenged witness anonymity. 

The case has seen Mr Museveni’s son and army chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, making allegations that Dr Besigye was plotting to assassinate his father.

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