Kizza Besigye has been at the forefront of walk-to-work protests in Kampala, the capital, where demonstrators have opted to forgo motorised transport and walk to work in protest over rising fuel prices.
"We consider Besigye under house arrest," Anne Mugisha, deputy foreign secretary of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The protests, staged every Monday and Thursday since April 11, have led to clashes between opposition politicians and security forces and resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people, according to local media, and left hundreds injured.
A heavy contingent of police blocked the road to Besigye's house on Monday, anticipating another protest, according to witnesses.
But the opposition leader, who returned home last Thursday from neighbouring Kenya after receiving treatment for injuries inflicted on him by security forces, had decided not to walk due to a heavy flu, party officials said.
Besigye came a distant second to Museveni in the February election, winning 26 per cent of the vote, while Museveni, in power since 1986, took 68 per cent. The opposition dismissed the election as a sham.
Mugisha said Besigye's wife Winnie Byanyima, a United Nations employee, was blocked by police as she tried to drive to the airport on Monday to fly back to her office in New York.
"When Winnie tried to leave the house this morning the car was immediately blocked by police with water cannon trucks. They towed the car to the police station, opened it and were shocked to find he wasn't inside," Mugisha said
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