Since his incarceration in November 2024 over charges of treason, veteran opposition behemoth Dr. Kizza Besigye has endured trying times.
His main lawyer, Martha Karua, had to be tossed up and down to secure a practicing licence while the case was still in the General Court Martial. His other lawyer, Eron Kiiza, was abruptly detained by the army court for daring to stand up against what he saw as its unfairness.
Besigye, on his own, went on hunger strike to protest his continued detention even after the Supreme Court ruled that army courts should not try civilians. To add insult to injury, the High Court has repeatedly denied Besigye’s application for bail, and the last attempt was rebuffed during a comical hearing last week.
Yet none of those hurts than the agony of losing friends and political allies whom he cannot bury or bid farewell. Someone who recently visited him at Luzira Prison told Bbeg Media that this isolation and inability to bury colleagues, who have been instrumental in his political struggles against President Museveni, have deepened his sorrow. But he remains strong, we have been told.
Among the departed is James Garuga Musinguzi, a founding member of the FDC and businessman who died last week after battling cancer. Musinguzi provided crucial financial backing for Besigye’s early campaigns against Museveni. He helped sustain the opposition’s momentum in its formative years of the Reform Agenda days. It was Musinguzi who provided FDC with a home in Najjanankumbi on the urging of Besigye. Musinguzi is set to be buried today at his ancestral home in Kihihi, and one must feel for Besigye, who has not been able to say a final goodbye to his former financier.
There is Major John Kazoora, a bush war hero and former FDC leader, who passed away on April 20, 2025. As a vocal critic of Museveni and a key FDC figure who served in leadership roles, Kazoora shared Besigye’s vision for democratic reform. He was key in designing the party’s counter-intelligence measures during the time when there was talk that NRM spies had infiltrated the FDC. His death must have added to Besigye’s agony because he could not physically bid him farewell.
July was doubly tragic for Besigye. He lost his judicial champion, the retired Supreme Court Justice Prof George Kanyeihamba. In 2006, Kanyeihamba ruled in favour of annulling Museveni’s victory, citing rigging after Besigye had petitioned the court. It is this bold stance from Kanyeihamba that validated Besigye’s claims and boosted his credibility. That is why Besigye’s inability to attend Kanyeihamba’s burial in Buziga must have stirred profound sadness. It denied him closure with a figure who upheld justice in his darkest electoral battles.
In the same month, Patrick Baguma, the former FDC deputy president for the Western Region, died tragically in a road accident along the Kampala Northern By-pass. Under Besigye’s leadership, Baguma held vital leadership positions and played a key role in expanding the party’s support base in the Bunyoro sub-region. Baguma loved Besigye so much that he named one of his sons, Kizza Besigye. For Besigye, missing Baguma’s funeral in Hoima must evoke deep regret, because he lost another ally who embodied the grassroots energy of their shared cause.
Finally, Daniel Ssebugwawo, husband of former FDC deputy president Joyce Ssebugwawo, who died in December last year, a month after Besigye had been locked up. While Daniel Ssebugwawo was quiet, he offered moral and financial support to the FDC during his wife’s tenure as a party leader in Buganda. Secondly, Besigye and Joyce Ssebugwawo were close, although their relationship was somewhat sullied after she chose to work in Museveni’s cabinet after the 2021 elections. However, the death of Daniel Ssebugwawo marked the beginning of an accumulation of grief for Besigye. There are several others including relatives.
As he waits for his freedom, unsure when or whether it will come, the deaths of colleagues and allies that Besigye has been unable to bury must have taken a huge emotional toll on him.
But like his supporters say, “we shall overcome.”
