Besigye restarts 'defiance campaign,' labels police 'utterly incompetent'

Serial Ugandan opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, has restarted his defiance campaign against President Yoweri Museveni, barely 24 hours after he was granted $30,000 bail by a Nakawa High Court in the capital Kampala.

“I do not intend to compromise with my rights as a full citizen of my country,” Besigye told a crowd on Wednesday morning.

“You must understand that our struggle is not simply to replace the NRM (ruling party) by the FDC (Besigye’s party). We want to change this country where people are treated as subjects,” he added.

Besigye, who addressed pressmen in Kampala said the police were ‘utterly incompetent’ because despite all the uniformed and un-uniformed police deployed to watch him, he was ‘in the center of Kampala seated.’

“They cannot detain, even me, as they vow. So I was able to beat their security and come to town, first; as a show of defiance, that what they were doing was illegal, was unconstitutional,” he added.

VIDEO: kizzabesigye1; In spite of all the resources the police deploy and waste, they are utterly incompetent pic.twitter.com/UCOTFv2jon

— NBS Television (nbstv) July 13, 2016

Besigye is challenging the reelection in February this year of President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 30 years. He was arrested on May 11 after organizing a ceremony where his party members supposedly swore him in as president on the eve of Museveni’s swearing in.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Museveni did not win the election,” Besigye reiterated, adding that the authorities had responded to the accusations by the betrayal of charging him.

According to the election results, Besigye came second in the February polls. He has rejected the results, accusing the presidential camp of massive fraud.

This election, won by Museveni in the first round with 60.62% of votes, was conducted in an “atmosphere of intimidation”, according to international observers.