Michael Kiprono
Nairobi, Kenya.
Two prominent Kenyan human rights activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, were freed late Friday after 38 days in secret military detention in Uganda, where they say they were tortured and starved by members of Uganda’s elite special forces.
The duo — known for their vocal campaigns against state repression in East Africa — returned to Nairobi on Saturday morning, visibly frail but defiant, vowing to seek justice for what they described as “a living nightmare.”
Njagi and Oyoo, both in their 30s and affiliated with the Free Kenya Movement and Vocal Africa, had traveled to Uganda on October 1 to support opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, during a National Unity Platform (NUP) rally in Kaliro District. Witnesses said masked men in military uniform abducted the two shortly after the rally, sparking an international outcry and a habeas corpus petition filed in Uganda’s High Court.
The petition was dismissed three weeks later after the court ruled that the men were “missing persons.” The Uganda Human Rights Commission also declined to intervene, citing the pending court case.
According to the activists, they were held incommunicado at the Kasenyi Military Barracks in Entebbe, a facility reportedly under the command of General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni. They were never charged with any offence.
Upon their release on November 7, Ugandan authorities handed them over to Kenya’s High Commissioner in Kampala. The two were later escorted through the Busia border, where they were received by Busia County Commissioner Chaunga Mwachaunga. Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei confirmed their safe return, citing “lengthy engagements between the two governments.”
Speaking haltingly at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Saturday afternoon, surrounded by family and supporters from Amnesty International, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, and Vocal Africa, Njagi broke down as he described their ordeal.
“We were in military detention by the special forces. I didn’t eat for 14 days. We were tortured,” he said, his voice shaking.
Oyoo, visibly weak and limping, added:
“They stripped us, beat us on the legs, and left us unable to stand for days. They wanted to know why we were with Bobi Wine and wearing the red beret.”
Their release followed weeks of quiet diplomatic pressure. According to the Free Kenya Movement’s Felix Wambua, the turning point came after former President Uhuru Kenyatta intervened directly with Ugandan officials.
“Without the intervention of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, I don’t know if we would have managed,” Wambua said.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi also credited “open and constructive communication” with Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jeje Odongo, including a personal letter, for helping secure the handover.
Bobi Wine, who is campaigning to challenge Museveni in Uganda’s 2026 presidential election, welcomed the release in a statement posted online.
“After 39 days under incommunicado detention and torture, our Kenyan brothers Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo have been released,” he wrote, accusing General Kainerugaba of ordering the arrest. “We all have a duty to free Uganda from this despot — and the rest of East Africa will be free. Aluta continua!”
Human rights organizations in Kenya and abroad have condemned the activists’ detention and called for accountability.
Faith Odhiambo, President of the Law Society of Kenya, said the release marked “an important moment in defending the human rights of East Africans,” praising the persistence of lawyers, diplomats, and journalists.
Amnesty International’s Irene Soile warned of “a growing pattern of transnational repression” in the region, while Vocal Africa’s Executive Director Hussein Khalid declared,
“An attack on one activist is an attack on all of us. The long road to justice begins now.”
This is not the first time Njagi has faced abduction. In 2024, he was kidnapped in Kenya by masked men and held without food for weeks before resurfacing in court.
As Kenya and Uganda navigate strained relations amid allegations of cross-border renditions, the case has intensified scrutiny of authoritarian practices within the East African Community — and renewed fears that political violence could rise ahead of Uganda’s 2026 polls.
Ugandan authorities have not publicly commented on the allegations.