A former Ugandan prime minister who wants to
challenge President Yoweri Museveni for the ruling party's candidacy
ahead of 2016 elections has been arrested by the police while he was on his way to meet supporters
at a town near Kenya's border.
In
June police had banned Amama Mbabazi from holding meetings to promote
his challenge against Museveni, saying their party had not yet
nominated a candidate.
Andrew
Felix Kawesi, Uganda Police operations commander, was shown on local
television station NSB confirming the arrest to journalists in Njeru,
a town 75 km outside the capital Kampala.
"I
am telling you ... I am the police and I have arrested him. He has to
stick to what the law requires ... there's no going to Mbale. He's
now under incarceration," Kawesi said.
Mbabazi
was travelling to Mbale, a town near Uganda's border with Kenya to do
a consultative meeting with his supporters and promote his
candidature.
Police
also arrested another presidential aspirant, opposition leader Kizza
Besigye, early on Thursday morning as he left his house, his aide
said.
"He
had just left his home this morning going to the American Embassy for
a meeting with the Ambassador when police intercepted him and ordered
him either to return home or be arrested," Francis Mwijukye, his
aide, told Reuters.
"He
refused to return home and was immediately arrested and taken to
Nagalama Police Post," he said, referring to a neighbourhood
outside the capital Kampala.
 |
Kizza
Besigye in
a police cell
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