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East Africa is slowly descending into tyranny
Tanzanian riot police disperse demonstrators during violent protests that marred the election following the disqualification of the two leading opposition candidates in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, October 29, 2025.
It was deeply unsettling to hear Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni publicly admit that his government — specifically the military — had detained Kenyan activists Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi for the 38 days they were missing.
His words and demeanour reflected a leader dismissive of human rights. He boasted of Uganda’s “good intelligence,” claiming to know the two activists — though he momentarily forgot their names — and accused them of collaborating with opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) as “experts in chaos.”
It reportedly took sustained pressure from the United Nations and the Kenyan Government for Kampala to release the duo, despite earlier military denials.
Mr Museveni’s remarks, read between the lines, appear to frame the activists as agents of Uganda’s opposition — a convenient pretext to clamp down on dissent ahead of the country’s next elections.
Arbitrary arrests
Across the border in Tanzania, Kenyans working or doing business there face cancelled permits, arbitrary arrests and harassment. Some have even disappeared or lost their lives. Following Tanzania’s disputed elections — condemned by SADC and African Union observers — President Samia Suluhu Hassan blamed “foreigners” for causing unrest.
Yet, Kenya’s President William Ruto, the current East African Community chair, has remained conspicuously silent. Uganda’s treatment of opposition figures is worsening. Veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, once Mr Museveni’s comrade and personal doctor during the NRM struggle, is again in military custody — reportedly after being seized in Kenya with Nairobi’s tacit approval. Such developments paint a grim picture of a region increasingly gripped by authoritarianism.
East Africa’s leaders, who swore to uphold their constitutions, now appear to be dismantling the rule of law. If presidents can violate international conventions and admit it openly, who will protect citizens’ rights? The scars of Kenya’s 2024–2025 Gen Z protests remain fresh, yet governments continue to trample basic freedoms.
Only firm pressure from the international community can halt this descent into repression. The era of dictatorship should be long behind us — but history, and posterity, will judge today’s leaders harshly if they fail to respect democracy and human rights.
David M Kigo, Nairobi
