Former Forum for Democratic Change president, Dr Kizza Besigye was Thursday arrested. Reports say, police officers camped at the entrance of his home in Kasangati town council, Wakiso District at about 3 am.He spoke to journalists, moment before he was arrested, bundled into a waiting police van and taken to Naggalama Police Station, in Mukono District, where he is detained.

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“Ugandans must wake up to the fact that we have an illegal, illegitimate regime determined to use force, to remain in power. And if everybody wakes up to that fact, what has to be done then, should be also be equally clear. That we shouldn’t be, you know, hoodwinked into believing that people will just line up and throw a piece of paper [ballot paper] in a box, and power will be handed over to them. It won’t happen. In 2016, people voted. We won elections, I was imprisoned here [at his home], and later on taken to Moroto in Karamoja and to Luzira [prison] and that is it.

“So, Ugandans simply needs to come together. Everybody needs to know that they have a duty. In a struggle everybody has a duty. Nobody should say those ones are struggling for me. No. Everybody should become part of the struggle to free ourselves.

“Nobody also should say that that one should not struggle because I have been hearing people say that Besigye has been struggling now he should get out of the struggle…. he, he, that is nonsense. I don’t struggle for anybody. I struggle so that I live in a free country.
“So, the focus of the country is transition, and it will not be rolled back. Transition from the 32 or 33 years of Museveni rule. Museveni must go. That’s the one demand that now every Ugandan must focus on. Museveni must go and how he goes is through the concerted effort of every Ugandan simply saying; enough is enough.

“That is what has delayed this thing [NRM] to end. Because Museveni thinks he can cut off 10 people and everybody else will be quiet. And if that is indeed the case, then he will stay. Cutting off 10 people cannot be cutting off 40 million people. So, people, wherever they are, they must do what they can, with what they have; every place where they are.
“This struggle cannot depend on Besigye, Lord Mayor Lukwago, Ingrid [Turinawe], I don’t know [Allan] Ssewanyana, the few homes that are being barricaded, unless Museveni has capacity to barricade every home of Uganda. Whoever is not barricaded, should do something. But you know, I have even now been seeing people writing on social media asking: Why did you sleep in your home? You should have known that they will barricade you. I must sleep somewhere. But you who is not barricaded, you should do something. This is not about anybody. The struggle is for everybody. That’s what every Ugandan must wake up to. It’s not a struggle of Besigye, It’s not a struggle of Bobi Wine, it’s not a struggle of the Lord Mayor [Lukwago]. It is a struggle of every Ugandan. We can only, may be, offer guidance and some leadership, but every Ugandan must wake up every day to free themselves.

“So, I refused to continue just to go in [waiting police van] to be taken to Naggalama [police cells]. It doesn’t make sense, that I go out and be taken to Naggalama, I spend there a whole day and they bring me back in the middle of the night, it doesn’t make sense; when people remain just looking at you, asking what are you will do the next day. This cannot be about individual, it can be about every Ugandan. The media has been terrorised, you know, and I am glad that even the media has now reached a stage of saying if you touch us again, we are taking the following actions. It is action that frees people. It’s not words, it’s action. So, Ugandans must simply act.

“What we have been doing over the last two years, is to build capacity within the population to act on their own. And I hope that indeed, even as we are here, that we can be able to encourage our people to take whatever action that needs to be taken.

"This action must include the demand for the release of all the people they have incarcerated in Gulu now, must be freed. And once they are freed, we must all move together to make sure that Museveni must go. That is the single demand now. Museveni simply must go. Those who are saying, we prepare for another election, are part of the problem. There is no election that is going to free us. We must free ourselves now; not in 20.. something. The clock must keep ticking for Museveni to simply vacate the seat of power in this country.