Kampala: Two Kenyan activists abducted in broad daylight while attending an opposition rally in Uganda have been freed, human rights groups said on Saturday. Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi had traveled to Kampala last month to support Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine, who will run against longtime President Yoweri Museveni in next year’s election.
According to Deutsche Welle, human rights groups wrote on X that they welcomed Oyoo and Njagi's release on Friday night in Busia, Kenya, after they had been missing for more than a month. The post by Amnesty Kenya, Vocal Africa, and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said the groups were "facilitating their transfer to Nairobi." "Let this moment signal an important shift towards upholding the human rights of East Africans anywhere in the East African Community," the joint statement added.
Kenyan daily newspaper the Daily Nation reported that diplomatic efforts by the Kenyan government had aided the pair’s release. The newspaper cited a government official on Saturday as saying the two men were now back on Kenyan soil and had been reunited with their families. Oyoo's older brother, Nobert Ochieng, 53, expressed relief, stating that their freedom was a "big relief, because it’s been a very tormenting and difficult month for us."
Media reports indicate that the pair were abducted by armed men from a petrol station in Kira town, on the outskirts of Kampala, on October 1. Immediately after their disappearance, the pair were uncontactable on their cell phones, the Daily Nation reported. Hussein Khalid, Vocal Africa's executive director, cited eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen the two activists being abducted by masked, uniformed, and armed men, suggesting state complicity in their disappearance.
Police in Uganda later denied that either activist was being held in custody. Bobi Wine wrote on X on Saturday that the men had been held at a military barracks in Entebbe, under Uganda’s Special Forces Command. Local media reported that the barracks are known for past incidents of torture and unlawful detention. The pair had confided in Wine that they had been interrogated for several days, he said.
The Kenyan Foreign Ministry wrote to its Ugandan equivalent last week to complain that it had not received a formal response to several diplomatic notes from Kampala requesting to know the men’s whereabouts.
Concerns are growing about transnational kidnappings and the erosion of civil liberties across East Africa. Dozens of government critics and opposition figures have been abducted within the region in recent years. Those taken were primarily political activists, opposition figures, and critics targeted in one country and transferred to another, often forcibly, for detention, torture, or trial. They include activists Boniface Mwangi from Kenya and Ugandan Agather Atuhaire, who reported being captured and tortured by security forces in Tanzania in May. The latest incident has fueled urgent demands for accountability and more robust regional safeguards for human rights.