Concern as EAC states morph into a coalition of rights abusers

The disappearance of activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo in Uganda, amid claims of  abduction, has sparked fears of possible collusion between East African member state officials to stifle dissent.

According to witnesses, the two activists from the Free Kenya Movement were taken by unknown people on Wednesday after attending a rally by Ugandan opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, more famous as Bobi Wine, President Yoweri Museveni’s strongest challenger in elections planned for next year.

The incident followed a spate of cross-border abductions targeting state critics as East African nations clamp down on civil liberties, even as internal kidnappings in the respective countries persist. Kenyan and Ugandan activists, such as Boniface Mwangi, Agather Atuhaire and Mwabili Mwagodi, separately, were reportedly abducted and tortured in Tanzania.

Ugandans, too, have faced kidnappings. The most notable of such cases was the abduction of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s long-time political rival, in Nairobi last year. He is faceing treason charges.

Early this year, Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a vocal critic of President Samia Suluhu, was abducted  by armed men in Nairobi and released hours later. She said she had been choked by the assailants.

On Thursday, a consortium of human rights bodies termed this pattern “alarming.” Vocal Africa, one of the rights organisations that issued the open statement to the Ugandan High Commission, wrote to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei seeking intervention in the matter.

Hussein Khalid, the chief executive officer of Vocal Africa, said the incident involving Njagi and Oyoo “raises serious questions about the safety of Kenyan citizens within the East African Community (EAC).”

“We further urge the Ministry to engage the Ugandan authorities to ensure that the Government of Uganda respects the East African Community Treaty, particularly the provisions on free movement and protection of citizens of member states,” Khalid said in a letter dated Thursday.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said the State was engaging with Kampala to establish the whereabouts of Njagi and Oyoo, but there is concern that the government is not acting as urgently as it should. Similar concerns featured when Mwangi and Mwagodi were abducted in Tanzania.

These concerns are valid, as are those about the continued curtailing of cross-border rights of citizens of East Africa, argues Kamau Ngugi, the executive director of the Defenders Coalition, an umbrella for Kenya’s rights groups.

“You can be anywhere you want to be,” said Ngugi, pointing out the freedom of movement of goods and services guaranteed to East Africa’s citizens.

Indeed, the community’s common market protocol facilitates the free movement of citizens of EAC member states and the right of residence. There are no visa restrictions among member states, with citizens only required to use their national identity cards or student cards to travel within the region.

When political activists like Martha Karua and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, among others, were denied entry into Tanzania in May, where they planned to witness opposition politician Tundu Lissu’s court arraignment over treason charges, Suluhu said that the activists should not “cause chaos” in her country.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who heads the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Kenyans should respect their neighbours’ “norms and laws”

“Recognising our ability to engage respectfully on the regional and global stage is a strength, not a weakness,” Mudavadi said then.

The EAC, founded in 1967, has struggled to achieve its goals of integration. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the founding nations of the eight-member community, have often clashed, mostly on trade, where countries deny entry to goods from their neighbours.

Its goal for a common currency has also been thwarted by mistrust, with dreams of a political federation stalled by the desire of member states to retain their autonomy.

“Those in authority are desperate to retain their power,” Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi said of the latter phenomenon in a previous interview.

There have been steps in the right direction, such as a common passport for the community.

But such gains are countered by the curtailing of movement and labour rights.

While many expatriates from the region work in other EAC states, bottlenecks still exist. For instance, Karua was briefly denied a practising permit to act as Besigye’s lawyer last year.

While she eventually got a temporary permit, Karua later lamented about such hurdles that betrayed the very goal of integration.