Week of agony as families wait for word on abducted activists

Activist Bob Njagi is joined by his fellow activists at a press on 2nd February 2025. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

It has been a harrowing week for the families of two Kenyan activists abducted in Uganda.

The families of Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo say they have neither heard from their loved ones nor received any official communication on their whereabouts since they went missing last Wednesday.

The Free Kenya Movement officials were seized by armed men in Kireka, Kaliro District, eastern Uganda.

Yesterday, a High Court  in Kampala was told that the two Kenyans are being held in a military facility in Mbuya, the headquarters of Uganda’s Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs.

According to a petition by  Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates, the activists are being detained incommunicado and unlawfully. The petition names Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General as respondents.

An affidavit filed by Koffi Atinda, a colleague of the missing activists, Njagi and Oyoo were arrested shortly after attending a campaign rally for Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, who is vying for president.

Atinda claims that the two were taken at a petrol station by armed men in military and civilian clothes using a Toyota Hiace van at around 3pm.

According to relatives, the two activists had travelled to Uganda on September 29.

“Since then, their phones have been switched off and their whereabouts remain unknown. We plead with the Government of Kenya to intervene and secure the immediate and unconditional release of our brothers Nicholas and Bob,” said Norbert Ochieng, Oyoo’s brother, in a statement by the families.

“Their continued detention violates regional and international human rights standards, including protections under the East African Community Treaty and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.” 

The families reported the incident to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, on Thursday.

The disappearance of the activists has drawn condemnation from civil society groups, who see it as part of a growing pattern of cross-border repression targeting human rights defenders in East Africa.

In a joint statement, Amnesty International Kenya, Vocal Africa, and the Law Society of Kenya accused Ugandan authorities of violating both domestic and international law.