How activists' ordeal echoes a painful past

When activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo left for Uganda, they never imagined what awaited them — that they would be abducted and held incommunicado for more than a month.

The two left Kenya for Uganda on 29 September 2025 to monitor a political campaign rally by opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.

However, on 1 October 2025, reports emerged that they had been apprehended by individuals believed to be Ugandan security agents at a fuel station in Kireka, Kampala.

For several weeks after news of their abduction surfaced, their families clung to hope that the two would return alive.

As days passed without any communication, Kenyan activists and human rights defenders stepped up pressure on Ugandan authorities to release them.

About a week after their disappearance, a habeas corpus application was filed in court by Ugandan lawyers Eron Kiiza and Kato Tumusiime.

The petition named several top Ugandan officials, including the Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, the Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General, as respondents.

However, in a ruling delivered on 22 October 2025, Justice Simon Peter Kinobe dismissed the application, stating that the petitioners had not provided sufficient evidence that the two men were in the custody of the military.

“In the circumstances, I dismiss this application with no order as to costs,” ruled Justice Kinobe.

Towards the end of October, Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a letter from Vocal Africa regarding the activists’ disappearance.

In the response, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei stated that the Kenyan government was in talks with President Yoweri Museveni’s administration to secure the pair’s release.

Human rights activists in Kenya did not relent. They took an even bolder step by staging a demonstration outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Nairobi, chaining themselves at the entrance and demanding that officials break their silence on the whereabouts of Njagi and Oyoo.

This was followed by further protests outside the Ugandan Embassy in Nairobi.

Fundamental rights

Former presidential aspirant Reuben Kigame condemned the growing trend of human rights abuses in Kenya and across the East African region, criticising the Kenyan government for remaining silent on the activists’ plight.

Similarly, Martha Karua, leader of the People’s Liberation Party, called for the immediate release of the two, terming their abduction a gross violation of their fundamental rights.

On October 30, 2025, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Vocal Africa petitioned the European Union (EU) over the matter, arguing that keeping the activists incommunicado and without legal representation amounted to enforced disappearance, a crime under international human rights law.

In their petition, they urged the diplomatic missions to press both the Kenyan and Ugandan governments to immediately disclose the activists’ whereabouts, guarantee their right to legal representation, and allow communication with their families.

“The prolonged detention of individuals without communication, access to legal or consular representation, or judicial oversight amounts to enforced disappearance, a crime under international human rights law,” the civil society groups stated.

After 38 days, Njagi and Oyoo were finally set free amid claims that they had been tortured and at some point forced to fast.

Their ordeal mirrors that of 15 years ago, when Kenyan human rights activist Al-Amin Kimathi and lawyer Mbugua Mureithi were arrested and detained in Uganda under similar circumstances.

Kimathi and Mureithi had travelled to Uganda to follow up on the cases of seven Kenyans who had been renditioned there by the Kenyan government. The men were linked to the 11 July 2010 bombings in Kampala.

The seven Kenyans rendered to Uganda were Hussein Hassan Agade, Mohamed Adan Abdow, Idris Magondu, Mohamed Hamid Suleiman, Yahya Suleiman Mbuthia, Omar Awadh Omar, and Habib Suleiman Njoroge.

After landing in Uganda, Mureithi and Kimathi were arrested as they left Entebbe International Airport for their hotel.

They were initially taken to the Kireka Counter-Terrorism Centre, where they were reportedly seen by the seven Kenyans, who raised the alarm after spotting them handcuffed and blindfolded.