Byanyima disclosed that when she visited Besigye at Luzira Maximum Security Prison last week Friday, he was responding “slowly and painfully” to treatment but remained extremely weak.
Winnie Byanyima, the wife of detained Ugandan opposition figure Dr Kizza Besigye, has raised a fresh alarm over his deteriorating health and prison conditions, accusing the Ugandan authorities of deliberately denying him proper medical care and subjecting him to inhumane treatment.
In a statement dated January 25, 2026, Byanyima disclosed that when she visited Besigye at Luzira Maximum Security Prison last week Friday, he was responding “slowly and painfully” to treatment but remained extremely weak.
She said Besigye was unable to walk from his cell to the visitors’ reception and had to be seen in a small office next to his cell.
According to her, the opposition leader struggled back afterward, clinging to the prison walls to avoid falling.
“I had to hold back tears as I watched him slowly make his way back afterwards… returning to an oven-hot, dark, bedbug-infested cell,” Byanyima said.
She revealed that in eight hours, Besigye had eaten only a small piece of yam and half an avocado, stressing that his condition was alarming and incompatible with continued incarceration.
Byanyima praised Besigye’s personal doctor for repeatedly braving traffic to visit him in prison, noting that prison authorities have refused to transfer him to a private clinic where, she said, “full and proper medical care can be provided.”
“This is not care. This is punishment,” she declared.
Byanyima accused the state of deliberately denying Besigye the medical attention he needs and trusts, describing his continued detention under harsh conditions as a direct threat to his life and recovery.
She questioned why Besigye, who she emphasised is innocent until proven guilty, has been denied bail four times and subjected to what she described as cruelty and inhumanity.
“The law is clear. Dr Kizza Besigye is innocent until proven guilty. Why, then, is he being treated with such cruelty and inhumanity?” she asked.
She held President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, directly responsible for Besigye’s suffering.
“Every day that he remains ill, every day that he is forced to endure pain, weakness, and the humiliation of these appalling prison conditions, is the responsibility of his captors,” she said.
Byanyima issued a series of demands, calling for Besigye’s immediate release on bail, urgent access to proper medical care, and an end to what she described as deliberate cruelty against him.
She also thanked Besigye’s legal team and supporters for their continued moral and material support, urging Ugandans, medical professionals, religious leaders, and the international community not to remain silent.
“Silence will make you complicit,” she warned.
“Dr Kizza Besigye’s life matters. His rights matter. And those responsible for his suffering will be held to account.”