Lawyers representing Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye yesterday said their client has been placed under unlawful house arrest by police who have barred him from venturing farther than the inner compound of his Kasangati residence.
Uniformed personnel were asking whoever wanted to enter the property to identify oneself, as they searched any vehicle leaving the home.
Mr Ibin Senkumbi, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, insisted Dr Besigye, who is not allowed to access his farm which surrounds the home, is under preventive arrest. Police will continue to be positioned here until there is assurance Dr Besigye is no longer a threat, Mr Senkumbi told journalists in Kasangati without specifying what threat the FDC leader poses.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, preventive arrest was used by British colonial powers to restrain mainly Africans from political agitation. In April, police placed Dr Besigye under preventive arrest at the height of his participation in the first phase of the peaceful walk-to-work protests against the rising cost of living which left at least 10 people shot dead, hundreds detained and several others injured.
Uniformed personnel were asking whoever wanted to enter the property to identify oneself, as they searched any vehicle leaving the home.
Mr Ibin Senkumbi, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, insisted Dr Besigye, who is not allowed to access his farm which surrounds the home, is under preventive arrest. Police will continue to be positioned here until there is assurance Dr Besigye is no longer a threat, Mr Senkumbi told journalists in Kasangati without specifying what threat the FDC leader poses.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, preventive arrest was used by British colonial powers to restrain mainly Africans from political agitation. In April, police placed Dr Besigye under preventive arrest at the height of his participation in the first phase of the peaceful walk-to-work protests against the rising cost of living which left at least 10 people shot dead, hundreds detained and several others injured.
