Riots after Uganda opposition leader's trip halted

[May 11, 2011]  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Uganda's top opposition leader was kicked off a flight from Kenya on Wednesday, prompting riots back home that police quelled with tear gas only a day before the country's president of 25 years was due to be sworn in for another term.

Kizza Besigye said he was waiting to board a flight when a Kenya Airways official informed him that the plane would not be allowed to land in Uganda with Besigye on it. A government spokesman in Uganda denied that authorities had interfered with his return.

Anti-government marches led by Besigye over the last month have been the most serious unrest in sub-Saharan Africa since protests swept out leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. Human Rights Watch says that Uganda security forces have killed nine people during the protests.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who first came to power in 1986, has said repeatedly that his government will not fall to protests. He was re-elected in February and his inauguration is set for Thursday.

Besigye said the country's constitution guarantees him the right to return home.

"Every Ugandan has the right all the time to return to Uganda. So it's a contradiction that he wants to swear by that constitution tomorrow which he is violating today," Besigye said. "This is what we are confronting -- impunity."

Besigye, who election officials said finished second in the vote, has been arrested five times while leading protests over rising prices and government corruption. During his last arrest, he was sprayed at point-blank range with tear gas or pepper spray and was temporarily blinded.

He tried to return home Wednesday after seeking medical care in Kenya. Besigye said there were indications the government would allow him to return home in the evening.

Chris Karanja, a Kenya Airways spokesman, said the airline could not take Besigye to Uganda "because of safety reasons."

"Intelligence reports showed that it was not safe to fly him to Uganda. We cannot share why but our internal intelligence showed that it was not safe for him to board the plane," Karanja said.

Food and fuel prices have risen sharply in Uganda in the past few months, fueling the anti-government protests. Museveni said he will propose a constitutional amendment so that protesters are jailed for at least six months after arrest, instead of being released on bail the same day.

[Associated Press; By JASON STRAZIUSO]

Associated Press reporters Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya and Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

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