'Release them': Kin of activists missing in Uganda plead for Ruto's intervention

For 12 days, the families of Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo have lived in agony, with no word on their fate since their abduction in Uganda.

The silence from the governments of Uganda and Kenya has deepened fears the two leaders of the Free Kenya Movement are being held in a military detention facility in Kampala.

Their families say the wait has become unbearable and are appealing to the government to help them secure the release of their relatives.

“It is very painful when you don’t know where your child is. We really want to appeal to the government to help us bring the two hom,” said Roselyne Ochieng, Oyoo’s mother.

She added: “Nicholas takes care of me. When I am sick, he goes for my medication.”

The two activists were reportedly seized by armed men in Kireka, East of Kampala, on October 1, shortly after attending an opposition campaign rally for Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.

According to eyewitnesses, the two were forced into a van by the men and driven away at high speed.

Since then, their phones have been off, and there has been no communication.

According to Koffi Atinda, a colleague of the two who had accompanied them to Uganda, they left Kenya on September 29 and crossed the border without any incident.  

“Before reaching Kampala, we spent two days in Jinja. From there, we were invited for a private meeting with Bobi Wine,” said Atinda.

He said that Njagi and Oyoo were seized just before they were to meet the Ugandan opposition leader.

“We had lunch and were supposed to meet Bobi Wine in the same hour. As we were repairing our car, a van came with men, some in uniform, some not, and one woman. Some were armed,” he said.

Kenya’s formal request

Atinda said that all of them were taken but once inside the van, he was asked to get out and lock the door of their car.

“I was told not to get back inside the van and that the two would come back. They then left me there, stranded, not knowing where to go or where to report,” said Atinda.

According to the Principal Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Korir Sing’oei, Kenya’s High Commission in Kampala had made a formal request for information.

“Our Mission has requested the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to liaise with relevant authorities in Kampala to obtain information regarding their current situation,” he said in a statement.

However, Ugandan police have denied any knowledge of the activists’ detention. Speaking at a security briefing in Kampala last week, Uganda Police Spokesperson ACP Kituuma Rusoke said he was not briefed by the police that the two Kenyans were in their custody.

“If I had any information on their whereabouts, I would present it here without any reservation,” he said.

A habeas corpus petition filed by Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates before the High Court in Kampala alleged that Njagi and Oyoo are being detained unlawfully at the Mbuya military barracks, home to Uganda’s Ministry of Defence.

The petition names Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, and the Inspector General of Police among the respondents.

Feign ignorance

Back home, pressure is mounting on President William Ruto to speak directly with Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to secure their release.

Prof Fred Ogolla, a governance expert and activist, says the government cannot feign ignorance.

“It is impossible that the Kenyan government does not know where the two are. Their passports were stamped as they crossed the border, so there is no way they don’t know,” he said.

Ogolla added: “The Kenyan passport itself bears the President’s assurance that the holder will be protected. From where we sit, the two are now children of the president, and we expect him to take charge and tell the family where they are and when they will be brought home.”

Wider crackdown

Civil society groups are viewing the case as part of a wider crackdown on activists across East Africa.

Speaking in Nairobi on Sunday, activist Boniface Mwangi described the abduction as part of a growing trend of cross-border repression targeting critics of regional governments.

“A foreign government is targeting Kenyan nationals while our own government does nothing. These arrests are meant to create fear and break the solidarity that Africans have built across borders,” Mwangi said.

Vocal Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid, warned that the targeting of Njagi and Oyoo fits into a broader regional pattern of intimidation.

“Across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, activists and opposition politicians are being targeted for assassination, disappearance, and harassment,” he said.

Khalid accused East African leaders of collusion in silencing dissent, calling on Presidents Ruto, Museveni, and Tanzania’s Suluhu Hassan to uphold constitutional freedoms.

“You cannot silence people through repression, extrajudicial killings, or enforced disappearances. We will not remain silent as these injustices continue,” Khalid said.

On Friday, Mary Lawlor, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, expressed concern over the two activists disappearance, urging Ugandan authorities to secure their release.

“I am very disturbed by the reported disappearance of Kenyan human rights defenders Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo in Uganda. The two defenders were allegedly abducted by unidentified armed men in Kampala on October 1. Ugandan authorities must investigate and secure the safe release of Bob and Nicholas,” posted Lawlor on X.

Besigye abduction

This is not the first time Njagi has faced abduction. In August last year, he together with Jamil and Aslam Longton were seized in Kenya and held incommunicado for 32 days before being released.

Between 2024 and 2025, several activists across East Africa have disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

In May this year, Mwangi and Ugandan journalist Agather Atuhaire were detained in Tanzania, while in July, Kenyan activist Mwabili Mwagodi was abducted in Dar es Salaam and later dumped in Kwale.

In November 2024, Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye was abducted in Kenya and deported to Uganda.

Across the East African, evidence of the criminalization of dissent has been on the rise pushing activists to the edge with threats of arrest and criminal punishment.

In September 2010, Al-Amin Kimathi, a respected veteran Kenyan human rights activist, faced horror when he traveled to Kampala to observe hearings related to the devastating July 2010 bombings, only to end up in the hands of captors.

Without warning, Kimathi was arrested by Ugandan security forces, taken into custody, and held incommunicado, despite civil society groups rising in solidarity and condemning the excesses of the Ugandan administration.

Several rights organizations condemned the arrest as baseless and irrational, describing it as an attempt to silence his distinguished human rights work.

The charges were eventually dropped and Kimathi released after enduring nearly a year of detention and trauma.