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.
Museveni, in power since 1986, blames drought for high food costs and soaring oil prices for surging local fuel costs, and has warned Besigye that his protests will not be tolerated.
“I want to see what level of irrationality they have reached. They said walking is a protest. Is driving now also a protest?” Besigye said from his car before he was arrested.
“We are not asking for a regime change ... People of Uganda are expressing discontent with conditions in Uganda. Thing is, I am not setting out to be a martyr, I’m simply asserting my citizen’s rights,” he said.
Besigye, who has been defeated by Museveni in three presidential elections, was taken to Kasangati police station where opposition party officials gathered outside.
Police spokeswman Judith Nabakoba said they were awaiting advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions on what charges Besigye might face.
“The Col. is in bad condition. He has gotten a lot of pepper spray,” Besigye’s aide Sam Mugumya told Reuters from their prison cell.
Besigye had initially tried to walk to work again in protest at rising living costs, but was stopped by police at his gate. He decided to drive, tailed by police and supporters, before security forces blocked his car at a roundabout.
After a long standoff, plainclothes police smashed his car window with a hammer but Besigye refused to leave. His bodyguards were dragged from the vehicle and severely beaten.
A policeman smashed another window with a pistol and pointed the gun at the opposition leader while a second man drenched Besigye with pepper spray. He was eventually hauled out, dragged along the road and tossed into a nearby pickup truck.
“He was driving, but he eventually attracted a crowd which he couldn’t control and we tried to give him directions to take another route but he defied these directives. We tried to negotiate with him but he didn’t budge,” said Nabakoba.
“Police used reasonable force but investigations are underway on any allegations of violence,” she said.
After his arrest, police dispersed hundreds of Besigye supporters gathered at the roundabout, firing teargas and bullets, Reuters witnesses said.
“This is our president: Besigye. We call him ‘Big’. ‘Big is big’, we say. That is why they attack him. They attack him because they fear him. But he comes back again and again to face this government,” said supporter Edward Semuwemba.
Besigye was bailed from prison on Wednesday after being charged last Thursday with inciting public protests, and immediately vowed to carry on with the campaign of twice-weekly “walk to work” demonstrations.
He has been arrested during four of the five protests so far. The only protest in which Besigye was not detained was when he was taken to hospital for treatment on a hand he says was hit by a rubber bullet.
