Geneva, Switzerland Kizza Besigye, a major Ugandan opposition figure, was “kidnapped” in Kenya and is being held in a Kampala military jail, his wife, a top UN official, said Tuesday.

Winnie Byanyima, head of UNAIDS, demanded on X that the government of Uganda “release my husband Dr. Kizza Besigye from where he is being held immediately”.

Besigye, a medical doctor and opposition politician, “was kidnapped last Saturday while he was in Nairobi” to attend a book launch by Kenyan politician Martha Karua, she said.

Her statement came after media in Uganda reported the disappearance of Besigye, a former unsuccessful presidential candidate against Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African nation with an iron fist since 1986.

“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” Byanyima said.

“We his family and his lawyers demand to see him.”

She stressed that Besigye, who has been arrested numerous times in the past, “is not a soldier”. 

“Why is he being held in a military jail?”