Timeline for Dr Warren Kiiza Besigye Kifefe

1956: Born

1975: Went to Kampala

1979: Joins Museveni's movement

1981: Imprisoned

1982: Becomes Museveni's doctor

1986: Named minister

2001: Challenges Museveni in elections. Flees Uganda after losing

2006: Charged with treason and rape before election - later acquitted on both counts

2011: Participates in a sham elections and starts street style civil defiance campaign Walk to Walk

2012: Almost died in the hands of Uganda police, later to be flown for treatment in Nairobi ,thousands thronged the streets to cheer opposition leader Kizza Besigye on his return from Kenya, where he was recovering from a beating by Ugandan police two weeks ago.

Across town, crowds waving tree branches began flocking to Mr. Besigye’s three-car convoy as it slogged its way from the Entebbe airport toward the capital, Kampala.

The charismatic Dr Warren Kiiza Besigye Kifefe was born in Rukungiri, southwestern Uganda, in April 1956, the second child in a family of six and the son of a policeman, both parents died before he finished primary school.  He attended Kinyasano Primary School and Mbarara Junior School. He later joined Kampala's Kitante High School and then Kigezi High School in the southwest. He is married to Winnie Byanyima, a former MP who is seen as intelligent and ambitious and who was once a close personal friend of Mr Museveni. Dr Besigye and his wife have one son.

Besigye enrolled at the prestigious Makerere University in 1975, graduating with a degree in human medicine in 1980. He then worked briefly for the Aga Khan Hospital and then the Kenyatta National Hospital - both in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi

Dr Besigye fled to Nairobi after he was imprisoned for two months in the Nile Hotel in 1981, accused of working with the rebels, and tortured.  And in 1982 joined Mr. Museveni in the bush, where he became his personal doctor.

When Mr. Museveni came to power, Dr Besigye, aged just 29, was appointed state minister of internal affairs and national political commissar. In 1991, he became commanding officer of the mechanized regiment in Masaka, central Uganda, and in 1993 was appointed the army's chief of logistics and engineering.

In 1999, Besigye wrote a document critical of the government, entitled "An Insider's View of How the NRM Lost the Broad Base". The document accused the NRM of becoming a sectarian kleptocracy and a one-man dictatorship. Besigye was charged before a court martial for "airing his views in the wrong forum". He later brokered a deal in 2000 in which the charges were dropped in exchange for an apology for publishing the document.

In August 2001, Besigye fled the country, citing persecution by the state. He said he was afraid for his life. The authorities started to monitor Besigye's movements and linked him to a series of explosions that hit Kampala, the capital, after the election. He was intercepted by security forces at Lukaya as he travelled to the southwest and was eventually forced to seek asylum in South Africa, where he lived. He lived in South Africa for four years, during which time he continued to criticize Museveni's government.

On his return in 2005 he said: "I left in order to continue to be politically active rather than being behind bars or six feet under as had been threatened."

After he returned to Uganda ahead of the 2006 elections, he was arrested and charged with both treason and rape. His party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), was formed while he lived in exile and he returned to Uganda in 2005 ready to contest the 2006 elections. Three weeks after his return he was arrested by the government and charged on trumped-up charges of rape.

Dr Besigye himself says his mission is "to work with millions of other Ugandans in bringing about a stable democratic and peaceful Uganda".

Dr Warren Kiiza Besigye Kifefe, did record a summarized version of his experiences in life “aged 18, I was in a Kampala hotel about to have dinner, I decided to go to the toilets, while walking I stopped to talk to a former class mate. Suddenly a huge man lifted me up by the collar and slapped me hard across the face and sent me sprawling to the floor. I never made it to the toilets, and never ate my dinner, I picked up my self up and ran for life”.

I was in prison in 1981 and almost died. Many of the people I was with in that prison have never been seen again. I went to exile.

I was in govt in 1986, I was a minister in NRM I was the NPC I was a minister of presidency

I was in the military as a member of the High Command

I went to exile ran away from NRM I have been in NRM prisons countless times.

Those in NRM today love it coz it has power.

We loved NRM when it had no power.

We worked with Miseveni when he had nothing.

It's from that background that I come to talk you. In spite of the

Struggle the situation is still too bad.

For more than 50 yrs. none of the leaders has handed over power.

Museveni bombed his way to power. If history is to repeat itself.

He might be waiting to be bombed out of power.

Where ever you go in this country poverty is very weather and citizen have been turned in to beggars.

You have health centers like this one in Kwapa that don't have drugs and other don't have medical

Workers At independence Uganda was at the same level of development as Singapore.

What is the problem? The problem is that we have no citizens.

I suspect that all of you here have registered as citizen!

What is citizenships? Coz you are born in a country's boundaries?

No.

You became a citizen coz you have power of your country. You only become the head of your family

Only if you can control it.

Power means you have the ultimate authority to decide for your country.

Nothing should be decided without your authority.

The Constitution says that power belongs to the people.

What decision is taken in this country is taken with your consent?

Do you have any authority as to how your money is spent?

Do you have any authority as whether our children should go and fight outside Uganda?

The second thing that power gives you is the power over the country's wealth?

If you don't have that power, what is the difference between you and a refugees?

We go to elections to give power.

When you go to an election without power, the ballot remains a piece of paper. And M7 has always told you that a piece of paper cannot remove him.

Those papers can be burnt, they can be changed.

When you don't have power you can't talk about elections.

In 2006, we knew we had won the elections but different results were announce. We went to court and the Supreme Court said the elections were not free and fair.

Gen. Sejusa while in London said that in the 2006 we got 69% of the election. Now while in Kampala

Gen. Sejusa repeated the same thing and said the same thing.

Since they were just pieces of papers, they couldn't make me President.

Unless you get power, you will not be able to change anything in this country.

You will remain in poverty, without services.

Power in Uganda since colonialism, has remained with the gun. It's the guns that make us fear as it was the case when white man brought the first gun.

Fear has become part of the culture.

We have a local saying that 'you rather be ashamed than dying' we must come out of fear and become confident that we can change those thing.

For the last 30 years we feed M7, We buy him clothes.

We buy him vehicles we pay him a salary.

He should be the one to be begging, but it's the reverse.

1. We must change our mindset. You don't stop at fearing M7 alone, you fear the GISO, RDCs who

Are actually your servants. For years we have developed a mentality submitting to our servants.

We must change this and become the owners of this land so that whoever is working for us is our

Workers not our masters.

We should know we have no power but we can get it.

2. We must unite and coordinate.

That is why the dictator employs that tactic of divide and rule.

If you are coordinated and work together, you can get power.

Sometime back, govt put allot of conditions to the businessmen in Kampala. They asked govt to reduce the condition which govt refused. They coordinated and they closed their shops.

The govt couldn't find anyone to Teargas, couldn't arrest them, and could not run the shop after three days they govt was not getting taxes. Govt bended and called them to a round table and gave in to the businessmen.

Because of they organized and acted together, they were able win...

Be confident that this is your country Organize in groups of 10 members, the 10 should each get other 10 that when we have information to send to you, it becomes easy to communicate and act together.

3. Take Action

We will be able to achieve our goal as the trader.

Going to the next election without power is a wastage of power.

Mr. M7 has the power to appoint and fire the entire EC.

This is like two teams in a football match, one of the team its coach is the referee, its supporters are

Linesmen and forth official. When the other team player is about to score, they rule him off side, their

Best defender is given a red card.

Would you allow to play such a game? NO we must keep in the field, stop the game until the rules are clear, a neutral referee is chosen then the game can be played.

We can't boycott, coz when we boycott the other team is given three points.

If Museveni doesn't surrender the the whistle we shall not allow the game to start until his term

Expires on 12 May 2016 and he leaves so that we organize a Free and Fair election.

So if you want to be rich, you must have power and control over your wealth. Forget these propaganda of Bonna Bagagawale. They can't save you.

We can maneuver by working together with Mbabazi Sejusa, and others and see M7 off, but this will

Still leave you powerless.

I have retired from the army I have retired from the medical profession I have retired from FDC Presidency

But I will never retire from fighting for freedom.

Be firm, you may be inconvenienced for some time you may suffer for some time but this is the only way we can give our children a good future. .

Part of the evidence we took to court was a Declaration Form where we got 500 Votes and M7

Got 17. The EC announced the we got 0 and M7 got 500