Four-time Presidential candidate, Col RTD Dr. Kizza Besigye has for the first time hinted at retiring from active politics.Dr. Besigye ha been in the country’s political scene since 2001 and has contested for Presidency in 2001, 2006, 2011 and in 2016. The former opposition Forum for Democratic Change – FDC Party President was Friday speaking at a memorial service for the Busiro South MP late John Patrick Musisi at Namuzzi village, Ssisa sub-county in Wakiso on Friday, Besigye when he said that the Bible he believes in prescribed seventy as the life expectancy. Dr. Besigye, a former ally of President Yoweri Musevei is currently aged 66.
“I have four years to continue with this struggle,” KB (as a section of his supporters call him is reported by the URN to have said. He said that during the remaining period, he would commit his entire effort to fight until freedom is achieved.
Besigye turns 70 in four years.
He, however, criticizes those who do not believe in an age limit in the performance of given functions, adding that the age limit was a biblical prescription.
Earlier on, he described as futile efforts by the opposition in Uganda to dislodge the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) from power using the ballot. He said that the same NRM is suffocating political parties and as such, will never allow those parties to freely organize.
He said he had listened to the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP) Mathias Nsamba Mpuuga outlining the legislative agenda for 2023. Besigye said the year 2026 would not be a magical year even if the agreed joint opposition candidate wins because Museveni is the Electoral Commission” and the “courts in case of electoral litigation.”
Besigye said the late Patrick Musisi who died in 2005 still lives because of the struggle he started, the struggle for freedom still continues through the people he mentored. He said Musisi worked for the unity of the opposition to struggle for that freedom and the conditions he was militating against still obtain as critical opposition is denied space and assembly.
He also noted the rampant illegal arrests and abductions, all of which he said needed Ugandans working together to make a new beginning and a transition before they can think of political ideologies and colors.
In attendance was a host of current and former MPs, politicians, and religious and cultural leaders who attended the ceremony. MPs included Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala), Dr Lulume Bayiga (Buikwe South), Joseph Sewungu (Kalungu West), Robert Ssekitoleeko (Bamunanika), Betty Ethel Naluyima (Woman – Wakiso) and Asumani Basaalirwa (Bugiri).
Other politicians included former MPs Ibrahim Kasozi, Salam Musumba, Latiff Ssebaggala, and Paul Mwiru.
Sadam Gayira, President of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said the NRM was a tree already eaten by ants and that the opposition only needed to push in a common direction or else that tree hits the house and animals.
Dr. Bayiga said that the late Musisi generously invested in them as budding politicians in the Uganda Young Democrats-UYD.
Samuel Lubega Mukaku, said the opposition was not making any gains when he sees an opposition party recruiting from a fellow opposition party.
While the opposition continues to wail, the NRM senior supporters including the Vice President Jessica Alupo are already canvassing for support for Museveni ahead of the 2026 polls.
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