{"id":41091,"date":"2026-07-30T10:08:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41091"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:08:56","slug":"detained-ugandan-opposition-figure-is-unconscious-in-intensive-care","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/detained-ugandan-opposition-figure-is-unconscious-in-intensive-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Detained Ugandan opposition figure is unconscious, in intensive care"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Detained prominent Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who collapsed while in court on Wednesday, is unconscious \u200band has been admitted to an intensive care \u200cunit, his wife said in an X post early on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Besigye, 70, collapsed in a court in the capital \u200bKampala where he is standing trial for treason. \u200bHe was taken away in an ambulance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">In a \u2060post on the X platform, Winnie Byanyima, who \u200balso heads the United Nations AIDS programme UNAIDS, said \u200bher husband had been admitted to an Intensive Care Unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital in the capital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;He is unconscious, unable to speak, \u200band unresponsive even to a pain stimulus,&#8221; she \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Government Spokesperson Alan Kasujja did not answer a Reuters call for \u200ccomment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Besigye \u2060has been in custody since November 2024 after he was detained together with his aide Obeid Lutale in neighbouring Kenya and both were repatriated to Uganda \u200bwhere they were \u200bsubsequently charged \u2060with treason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">His lawyers, supporters and rights activists say that the charges are politically \u200bmotivated and that his prolonged detention is \u200bpart of \u2060an ongoing crackdown on opponents by long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Museveni, 81, was declared winner of the last election \u2060in \u200bJanuary although the results were \u200brejected by runner-up Bobi Wine, who has since gone into exile in the \u200bUnited States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41093,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-41091","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who collapsed while in court, is unconscious","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41094,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41091\/revisions\/41094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}