KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s main opposition leader, who has been leading anti-government protests for more than a month, is under effective house arrest after police surrounded his home on Monday, his party said.

Kizza Besigye has been the face of “walk to work” protests that urge people to leave their cars at home on Monday and Thursday to highlight soaring fuel and food prices. The protests in the east African country have been crushed by police.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s opposition leader who has led protests over rising prices said the action would spread and even soldiers who have battled demonstrators may stop doing so if President Yoweri Museveni fails to offer concessions.

Kizza Besigye has become the face of the often violent “walk to work” protests that twice a week urge people to leave their cars at home to highlight soaring fuel and food prices they say are suffocating Uganda’s poorest.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – The rare and deadly Ebola virus has killed a 12-year-old Ugandan girl and health officials said on Saturday they expected more cases.

The girl from Luwero district, 75 km (45 miles) north of the capital Kampala, died on May 6, said Anthony Mbonye, the government’s commissioner for community health, in the first outbreak of the virus in Uganda in four years.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – A Ugandan bill that mandated the death penalty for gays who are “repeat offenders” appeared to have been shelved again on Friday when it was not debated in parliament after provoking an international outcry.

Parliament speaker Edward Ssekandi dissolved the house on Friday and said there was not enough time to debate the bill. A new parliament is to be sworn in on Wednesday.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – A Uganda bill that at draft stage had proposed the death penalty for homosexuals who are “repeat offenders” disappeared from the parliament’s agenda on Wednesday after severe pressure from foreign activists.

Legislators said it was now unlikely the bill would be debated during this parliamentary session but that it was technically possible it could be re-introduced at some point in the future.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Human Rights Watch said on Monday Ugandan security forces shot dead at least nine unarmed people — including three in the back as they fled — during protests against soaring inflation, and called for an independent probe.

Opposition politicians spearheading the “walk to work” protests have urged Ugandans to leave their cars at home on Mondays and Thursdays in solidarity with those who cannot afford fuel. The protests have sparked violence in the capital Kampala and several other towns for nearly a month.

KAMPALA, May 7 (Reuters) – The camera never lies, except in
Uganda. At least, that’s the government’s position.

An extraordinary row has broken out in the east African
country over media photographs and video footage of the arrest
of its most popular opposition leader Kizza Besigye last week.

KAMPALA, May 3 (Reuters) – Deadly clashes between security
forces and protesters livid at the repeated arrest of the
country’s opposition leader and surging prices have rocked the
start of President Yoweri Museveni’s fourth term in office.
Demonstrations erupted across the capital, Kampala, on April
29, a day after television pictures showed Kizza Besigye being
beaten, doused with pepper spray and dragged away by police.
[ID:nLDE73S0PH]

It was the fourth time Besigye, who was defeated again by
Museveni at the ballot box in February, had been arrested in
April during protests against high food and fuel costs.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – At least one person was killed when Ugandan police fired live bullets and tear gas on Friday to disperse crowds protesting the arrest a day earlier of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, a Reuters witness said.

The victim appeared to have been shot in the head and was lying in a pool of blood at a local market. Local media reported two more people had been killed.

KAMPALA, April 28 (Reuters) – Ugandan opposition leader
Kizza Besigye was dragged from his car by police on Thursday and
thrown into a pickup truck during a fifth round of protests
against high food and fuel prices, Reuters witnesses said.

This is the fourth time in three weeks that Besigye,
runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a disputed
February election, has been detained by police over the protests
that have killed at least five.