KAMPALA — Winnie Byanyima, the wife of detained opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye, has alleged that a foreign security consultant who is a key prosecution witness in the treason case against her husband was hired for US$3 million to manufacture evidence aimed at securing his conviction.
The allegations were made in a post on X on Sunday, where Byanyima claimed that Andrew Orlando Wilson, also known as “Orlando,” had been contracted to carry out what she described as a “pretext mission” against Besigye.
“We have learnt from our sources that Andrew Orlando Wilson was contracted for US$3 million to carry out a pretext mission to frame @kizzabesigye1 and secure his conviction on treason charges,” Byanyima wrote.
“If this information is true, Andrew Orlando Wilson is a mercenary for hire, doing the dirty work of authoritarian regimes by helping criminalise political opponents. I have never met him, but I have researched him. His role will be exposed.”
Byanyima did not provide evidence to support the allegation, and the claim has not been independently verified.
Wilson, a British-American security consultant and former soldier, is a central witness in the prosecution’s case against Besigye and his co-accused. Prosecutors allege that he acted as an undercover informant after reporting an approach by Ugandan opposition figures seeking military training and weapons to overthrow the government. According to court documents, his testimony underpins allegations that Besigye and others held meetings in Switzerland, Greece, Kenya and Uganda to solicit funding, acquire weapons and organise paramilitary activities.
The Ugandan government has not publicly responded to Byanyima’s latest allegations.
The claims came a day after Besigye challenged the court’s decision to require him to choose lawyers from a state-funded legal aid list, insisting he should be represented by counsel of his own choice.
In a statement read before the High Court, Besigye said he had been given a list of 786 advocates only hours before the hearing, making it impossible to make an informed decision about legal representation in a case involving complex international and electronic evidence.
He told the court that he already had a legal team in whose competence he had “complete confidence,” but said concerns over the security of those lawyers remained unresolved and were the subject of a separate High Court application.
Besigye also argued that it would be inappropriate to require taxpayers to fund lawyers for him when he was willing and able to retain his own counsel.
“It would be unjust to require the people of Uganda to bear the cost of legal representation on our behalf when we are both willing and able to retain counsel of our own choosing,” Besigye told the court.
His lawyer, Eron Kiiza, also questioned the state’s reliance on Wilson, alleging on social media that the prosecution’s “sole first-hand witness” had previously been linked to controversial police training programmes in Mexico. Kiiza further claimed that the government was prepared to spend public funds on court-appointed lawyers after allegedly paying Wilson as an informant.
Those allegations have not been tested in court, and Wilson has publicly defended his role in the investigation.
Recent court filings indicate that prosecutors intend to rely heavily on Wilson’s testimony, together with electronic communications, audio and video recordings, immigration records and telephone data, to support the treason charges against Besigye and his co-accused. The prosecution alleges the accused sought military training, weapons and other logistical support as part of a plot to overthrow the government. Besigye and the other accused have denied the charges.
Wilson has also recently become the subject of public criticism after publishing an article targeting Byanyima, prompting renewed debate among Besigye’s supporters over his credibility as a prosecution witness.
