Besigye: Two abducted at Nakawa court

Chaos erupted outside Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday when plainclothed security operatives abducted two individuals including a local councillor, shortly after a hearing in the treason and misprision of treason case involving opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye and others.

The incident unfolded moments after Besigye’s lawyers, led by senior Kenyan counsel Martha Karua and Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago, addressed journalists outside the courtroom.

Grade one magistrate Jonathan Tiyo, who stood in for the absent chief magistrate Esther Nyadoi, adjourned the trial to May 29, 2025. As crowds began to disperse, men in civilian clothes forcibly bundled two individuals into a white Toyota van, commonly referred to as a “drone”, which was parked opposite the court.

Eyewitnesses say the van immediately sped off in the direction of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). One enraged supporter reportedly punched an operative before uniformed Joint Anti-Terrorism (JAT) personnel arrived in a double-cabin vehicle to escort away the van.

Counter-terrorism officers stationed at the court attempted to pursue the van, but were unable to keep up. Harold Kaija, secretary general of the Patriotic Front for Freedom (PFF), a breakaway faction of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), identified one of the abducted as Katongole, a councillor from Kira Division.

Sources say Katongole had earlier clashed with court attendees over a suspected government operative accused of covertly photographing the crowd, whom spectators ejected from the courtroom, branding him a “state spy.”

Other witnesses allege Katongole and a companion were leading anti-government chants outside court, singing that President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Chief of Defence Forces Muhoozi Kainerugaba, would eventually fall, and that Besigye’s political faction would triumph.

Human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza, who says he was briefly detained but later released, condemned the arrests as unlawful and intimidating.

“Courts are supposed to be sanctuaries of liberty, not dangerous scenes of arrests by security operatives,” Kiiza told our reporter.

“These courthouse arrests intimidate citizens and deter them from seeking justice from institutions meant to protect them.” In recent years, “drone” vans have become a notorious symbol of state repression, commonly linked to unannounced and unlawful detentions of political dissidents.

Despite court rulings and public outcry calling for an end to these practices, enforcement and accountability remain elusive.