KAMPALA – Kizza Besigye had been charged on May 25 with inciting violence after being detained a day earlier in the capital Kampala as he rallied supporters to protest against soaring commodity prices.
After he was charged he was granted bail, but on the condition that he paid 30 million shillings ($8,000.00) of it in cash, which his lawyer protested as “outrageous.”
Besigye refused to pay and instead chose to go to jail. His lawyers subsequently lodged an appeal in the high court to have the amount reduced.
On Monday, a judge slashed the bail money to just 3 million shillings, which Besigye paid.
“We do appreciate what the court has decided, bringing it (bail cash) down. … It is a significant reduction,” Besigye’s lawyer Erias Lukwago told reporters after the ruling. His client was preparing to pay the money so he could be released, Lukwago added.
Ugandan consumers have been expressing anger about a steep surge in prices of a range of goods including fuel, cooking oil, soap, wheat and others.
Besigye has been leading opposition calls for tax cuts or other measures to limit the impact of inflation on consumers, but President Yoweri Museveni has refused relief, blaming high prices on the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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