The government of Uganda has been urged by allies of veteran Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye to release him from house arrest.
The arrest was imposed last week after he called for protests against skyrocketing consumer prices at a news conference on Thursday.
“It is very illegal. There’s no provision of the law that gazettes Dr. Besigye’s house as a detention place,” said Anna Ebaju Adeke, one of more than a dozen opposition lawmakers who went to his Kampala house on Tuesday.
“Police cannot turn somebody’s house and farm into a prison,” said another lawmaker Francis Mwijukye, threatening to mobilise supporters to storm the property if police did not go.
Besigye who has failed to dislodge long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni in four elections accuses the government of failing to help households and wants taxes reduced on essential commodities.
Museveni’s government ,however, blames the war in Ukraine for the surge in prices; especially for fuel, cooking oil and wheat.
Police on Monday accused Besigye of planning “unlawful assemblies and processions” which could disrupt traffic and trigger looting.
Museveni calls Besigye a troublemaker.
