Besigye arrested again for staging protest over soaring commodity prices

Police arrested Besigye on Tuesday as he attempted to lead a demonstration against the rising commodity prices while addressing a rally at Nakivubo lane, downtown Kampala.

Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, said Besigye was arrested because of the effect his impromptu gathering was having on the flow of business, traffic. Also due to the substance that the activist was allegedly inciting violence.

Onyango said police towed Besigye’s vehicle, registration number UAK 773K, to Central Police Station (CPS), in similar fashion to the past whenever Besigye has attempted to rouse the rabble against what he perceives as state-inspired injustices.

He was later taken to Naggalama, along with Sam Lubega Mukaaku of the Democratic Party (DP).

Besigye last month led his pressure group down a similar thorny road of activism when mobilising Ugandans to protest the high cost of living in the country and he was arrested for his trouble. A bail fee of Shs30 million was subsequently slapped on him, but this was later revised downwards to Shs3million.

Besigye has been in the trenches demanding that government take action against corrupt officials in government by demanding that what they have embezzled is recovered from them to enhance the salaries of civil servants and give relief to schools, among others.

This, he believes, will go a long way in meliorating the dire straits the country finds itself in as prices of essential household commodities keep soaring with many people struggling to keep their proverbial heads above deepening economic waters.