Opposition politician’s wherabouts unknown

KAMPALA: Police took away Ugandan opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi as he got off a plane at the country’s main airport yesterday but a police official denied he was under arrest and a government official said he had been taken to his home.

Kyagulanyi, a prominent challenger to long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni, was returning from the US, where he received treatment for injuries he said were sustained during torture by security forces. The authorities deny any mistreatment. The return of Kyagulanyi, a 36-year-old pop star and reggae musician turned legislator, has rattled the government headed by the 74-year-old Museveni.

Yesterday afternoon, two hours after Kyagulanyi’s flight landed at Entebbe International Airport, it was unclear where he had been taken after police escorted him from the tarmac after he disembarked his flight.

A police official had said he was being escorted to his home in the capital Kampala and was not under arrest. Soon afterwards the official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, said Kyagulanyi had been taken to a police station in his neighbourhood.

Simultaneously, government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo wrote on his Twitter feed that Kyagulanyi was inside his home. It was not possible to reach any representative of Kyagulanyi. Residents in his neighbourhood said they had attempted to wait for him on streets near his home but were chased away by security forces.

Several hundred supporters, many of them wearing the colour red which has come to be associated with him, gathered outside the police station where they believed he was being held.

Kyagulanyi is widely seen as posing a significant challenge to Museveni, who has ruled since 1986. His message – that Ugandans need a new head of state to tackle the myriad problems they face – has electrified citizens who say they are fed up with corruption, unemployment and repression. | Reuters