Kampala/Nairobi — Two Kenyan activists who traveled to Uganda to join opposition leader Bobi Wine on the campaign trail have disappeared in what rights groups and Kenyan officials are calling an abduction.
Eyewitnesses in Kireka, a suburb of Kampala, say the pair were stopped at a petrol station under the pretext of a car fault when armed men—some in police uniforms, others in plain clothes—forced them into a waiting van and sped off. Their mobile phones were switched off immediately afterward, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
Amnesty International Kenya, the Law Society of Kenya, and VOCAL Africa issued a joint open letter demanding Ugandan authorities disclose the activists’ location, guarantee their safety, and allow access to legal counsel and medical care. The groups urged adherence to Uganda’s constitutional protections and regional human-rights instruments that prohibit enforced disappearances and incommunicado detention.
In Kenya, Senator Samson Cherargei condemned the incident as “unacceptable,” urging Kampala to investigate swiftly and stressing that cross-border activism “should not be treated as a threat.” Bobi Wine, leader of Uganda’s National Unity Platform, accused the government of “rogue lawlessness” and demanded the activists’ unconditional release.
The case has sharpened concerns about what observers describe as a pattern of transnational repression in East Africa, where activists and opposition figures have faced cross-border arrests, renditions, or prolonged detentions. Analysts warn that such incidents erode public trust, chill civic participation across borders, and strain diplomatic relations within the East African Community.
Diplomatic pressure is building. Kenyan civil society organizations are pressing Nairobi to summon Uganda’s envoy, while regional lawyers’ groups are preparing urgent filings with human-rights bodies. Advocates are also calling for immediate habeas corpus applications in Ugandan courts to compel security agencies to produce the activists.
Ugandan authorities have not publicly commented on the disappearance. Rights monitors say the lack of official information heightens the risk of abuse and complicates efforts to verify the activists’ condition.
As the search enters another day, families, lawyers, and human-rights defenders are urging swift, transparent action: confirmation of the detainees’ status, access to counsel, and an independent investigation to identify and prosecute those responsible. Until then, the fate of the two Kenyans—identified by colleagues as Njagi and Oyoo—remains uncertain, but their case has already galvanized a broader regional push to safeguard civic space and accountability.
