AS UGANDAN president Yoweri Museveni was sworn in yesterday, his long-term rival Kizza Besigye landed back into Entebbe airport to a rapturous reception from thousands of his supporters.
They clapped and cheered, waving tree branches in the air and laying them before Dr Besigye’s SUV, as he rode back into Kampala, his arm in a cast from where a rubber bullet hit it three weeks ago.
Mr Museveni had to pass Mr Besigye’s convoy of vehicles on the way back to the state house, as did many of the dignitaries attending the ceremony. One of these was Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, looking frail and weak several months after his prostate surgery. But, to many lining the route, the oppressive reaction of the security services that followed awoke painful memories.
Police and soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at clusters of supporters. Live ammunition was used, people were chased with sticks and an American photographer was badly beaten, his camera taken from him by police, said several witnesses.
“He [Museveni] is no better than Obote [the former Ugandan leader],” said Kimbowa Yasim, watching a convoy of heavily armoured vehicles pass the roadside stall where he makes mahogany furniture. “Uganda is full of intimidation. They are hitting people like they are mosquitoes in the night.”
Dr Besigye, who lost to Mr Museveni in a presidential poll on February 18th, had flown to Kenya two weeks ago to undergo medical treatment for injuries sustained during one of a series of demonstrations against fuel and food prices in the east African nation.
He was initially barred from boarding his flight in Nairobi to fly back to Uganda on Wednesday. The Ugandan government denied they played a role in this, but Dr Besigye’s party said the government would “not give landing rights to Kenya Airways if they allowed him on board”.
Kenya Airways confirmed this version of events. This reporter saw two journalists forcibly ejected from Entebbe airport on Wednesday morning as they waited for Dr Besigye to land.
Ugandan minister of information Kabakumba Matsiko told parliament on Wednesday that the government did not block Dr Besigye’s return. He said the former Kenyan president, Daniel arap Moi, who attended yesterday’s ceremony, was on the plane and did not want Mr Besigye on it.
The opposition leader, although invited to the ceremony that will give Mr Museveni 30 years in power if he completes his five- year term, boycotted it. Six other former presidential candidates also boycotted the ceremony, saying the election had been rigged.
“This inauguration is the act of an illegitimate president,” said Dr Besigye, waving to supporters from his vehicle. “I urge Ugandans to resist the brutality and the intimidation of the security forces.”
Official results show that Dr Besigye, who once worked as Mr Museveni’s personal physician, won 26 per cent of the vote in February’s election while the president took 68 per cent. The results were largely endorsed by international election observers, even though they admitted state resources were used to finance the president’s re-election bid.
Dr Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change party says that the results were tampered with, and that both candidates won just under 50 per cent of the vote, which would have forced a run-off.
Mr Museveni, meanwhile, accuses the opposition of trying to enforce regime change and spreading chaos.