Kizza Besigye Warren Kifefe who is popularly known as Kizza Besigye is a Ugandan medical doctor, former military officer and Politician who has contested against the current President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in Presidential elections since 2001 without any success.
Dr. Kizza Besigye was born on 22nd of April in the year 1956 in a village called Rwakabengo which is found in Rukungiri district in the Western part of Uganda. Dr. Kizza Besigye was the second born in his family that is made up of six children.
His father was a policeman who served in the Ugandan police. Kizza Besigye obtained his primary school education from Kinyasano primary school and later went to Mbarara junior school where he was able to complete his primary school education.
After completing his primary school education, Dr. Kizza Besigye joined Kitante High School which is found in Kampala city for his ordinary level of education.
After completing his ordinary level of education, Dr. Kizza Besigye proceeded to Kabale district which is found in the Western part of Uganda where he joined Kigezi High School for his Advanced Level of Education.
In 1975, Dr. Kizza Besigye joined Makerere University after completing his secondary school education. At Makerere University, Dr. Kizza Besigye studied human medicine and later graduated in 1980.
After completing his Medical course, Dr. Kizza Besigye worked at Mulago National Hospital before deciding to go into exile in neighbouring country called Kenya.
While living in Kenya, Dr. Kizza Besigye decided to apply to the Medical Board of Kenya so that he could be registered as a doctor in kenya and this could grant him the chance to start working in Kenya.
He was accepted into the Medical board and registered and then he decided to apply for a job in Agakhan hospital and he was given the job.
He then started working as a medical doctor in Agakhan hospital and later he transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital which are both found in the Kenyan capital called Nairobi.
In 1982, Dr. Kizza Besigye decided to join the rebel group of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni which was called the National Resistance Movement or National Resistance Army (NRA).
While in the bush, Dr. Kizza Besigye became Yoweri Museveni's personal doctor. In January 1986, when the National Resistance Army came into power, Dr. Kizza Besigye was appointed as the Minister of State for Internal Affairs and later he also became the Minister of State in the President's Office and National political commissar.
In 1991, Dr. Kizza Besigye was appointed the commander of the Mechanised regiment in Masaka district which is found in the central part of Uganda. In 1993, Dr. Kizza Besigye was given the post of the army's chief of logistics and engineering.
In the year 1998, Dr. Kizza Besigye got married to Winnie Byanyima who is a trained aeronautical and mechanical engineer and at the time she was working at Uganda's high commission which is found in the United Kingdom.
In 1980 and 1990, Winnie Byanyima worked as an ambassador to France. Byanyima is a childhood friend of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni having stayed in the same homestead while she was young with Uganda's current president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
During the bushwar, Winnie Byanyima decided to join the National Resistance Army as Yoweri Museveni and his guerrilla group fought the ruling government.
Winnie Byanyima and Dr. Kizza Besigye have one son who is called Anselm. In the year 1999, Dr. Kizza Besigye wrote a document where he was criticising the ruling government.
This document whose tittle was An Insider's view of how the National Resistance Movement lost the broadbase. This document that was released by Dr. Kizza Besigye was accusing the NRM government of sectarianism, kleptocrasy and also a one-man dictatorship.
Dr. Kizza Besigye was arrested and charged in the courts of law for airing out his thoughts in a forum that was not correct.
In 2000, Dr. Kizza Besigye was able to be pardoned by court after reaching a deal with the authorities where by he was to offer an apology for the views that he had expressed in the document.
In 2000, in the month of October, Dr. Kizza Besigye announced that he would be contest for presidency against Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the 2001 elections. In the same year, Dr. Kizza Besigye retired from the Army after he got the rank of colonel.
During the presidential campaigns of 2001 elections, Dr. Kizza Besigye said that he was pushing for the end of the movement system of governance simply because it had already played it's role of bringing change to the Ugandans and therefore he was now planning to move the country towards the multi-party politics.
Dr. Kizza Besigye lost the elections that were characterised by claims of massive rigging, violence and also coercion of the voters.
In 2001, in the month of March, Dr. Kizza Besigye decided to petition the court over the elections and a panel of five judges that made the judgement voted 5-0 in favour of the cheating having taken place during the elections although they later decided not to nullify the elections.
After the elections, Dr. Kizza Besigye was accused of starting up another rebel group called the People's Redemption Army (PRA) and it is said that the rebel group was based in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to the supporters of Dr. Kizza Besigye, the Ugandan government was laying accusations against him inorder to destroy his credibility among his supporters.
In 2001, Dr. Kizza Besigye decided to flee Uganda to South Africa after claiming that there were allegations of having been persecuted by the Ugandan government.
Dr. Kizza Besigye lived in South Africa for about four years and during his stay in this country, he continued to criticise the ruling government that is being led by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. On the 26th October, 2005, Dr. Kizza Besigye decided to return to Uganda and this time he registered as a voter for the 2006 elections.
Dr. Kizza Besigye then started campaigning immediately and he was greeted by thousands of supporters as he campaigned for the upcoming elections.
In the 2006 elections FDC party became the main political opposition that was campaigning against President Yoweri Museveni but it lost.
In 2011, Kizza Besigye tried again to challenge the presidency of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni but it was also all in vain.
In 2016,the opposition members formed a unity organisation that they called TDA but at the last moment, the union collapsed and this killed the efforts of the Opposition in trying to oust Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
In 2018, the rise of Bobiwine has created a new phenomena in Ugandan politics making Dr. Kizza Besigye not as relevant as usual and his party has been split with Gen. Mugisha Muntu forming a new political party outfit that he called The new formation.
Comments
Post a Comment