Palaver - 13.04.11

Palaver

Kizza Besigye is an opposition leader in Uganda whose tribulations sometimes border on the absurd. Then again, Kenyans understand what it is to live under some legislation called Section 2A that criminalised everything and everyone deemed anti-Establishment. For the good doctor to lose three elections in a row to his former buddy and patient, Yoweri Museveni, is hard enough to swallow. But to be arrested while sitting alone on a tarmac road at the start of a civil disobedience campaign is even harder to take. Government reports later said Besigye was arrested leading a stone-throwing crowd after he urged wananchi to walk to work in protest at fuel price hikes. Besigye must think he is watching a movie remake of his life.