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Bob Njagi: Activists file petition seeking freedom at Ugandan court
Kenyan activist Bob Njagi during an interview in Kitengela town, Kajiado County, on May 29, 2025.
What you need to know:
- By press time Monday, it was not clear when the Ugandan court would convene to hear the application for habeas corpus, although the Constitution demands that matters of human rights should be fast-tracked.
Lawyers of two Kenyan activists reportedly arrested by armed men in Uganda last week have petitioned the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala to hear their case seeking to have them freed.
Reports say Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo were whisked away by security officials shortly after they attended a political campaign rally of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine. Wine heads Uganda’s largest opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP).
Lawyers Kiiza & Mugisha Co Advocates listed Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, the Chief of Defense Intelligence and Security, the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General as respondents.
Their petition against the State is supported by an affidavit by Koffi Atinda, a colleague of Mr Njagi, who says he witnessed their abduction after Wine's rally in Kaliro District, eastern Uganda.
In a sworn statement, he asserts: “The respondent’s military arrest and detention of the applicants at the 2nd respondent’s detention facility since Wednesday, 1st October, 2025, in Mbuya is incommunicado detention, illegal and unlawful.”
Mbuya is the headquarters of the Uganda Defence and Veterans Affairs ministry.
“The applicants have since been in detention for more than 48 hours, and they are incommunicado without trial or any charges preferred against them,” he adds.
He says the Kenyan activists had come to Uganda to show support for Wine, whom they also consider a personal friend.
“It's during their stay and visit in Uganda that they were brutally arrested by men wielding guns [and dressed] in both military and civilian clothes, around Kaliro District at Starbex Petrol Station in Eastern Uganda, where they had parked their vehicle,” Mr Atinda recollects.
“I witnessed the arrest and survived by a whisker. They were taken in a Toyota Hiace van, commonly known as Drone, at a terrible speed to a place one of them told me was Mbuya,” he adds.
“It’s important that this honorable court brings to an end the illegal military detention of the applicants and orders their unconditional liberty.
By press time Monday, it was not clear when the Ugandan court would convene to hear the application for habeas corpus, although the Constitution demands that matters of human rights should be fast-tracked.
Ugandan police: We don't have them
However, the police have refuted claims linking them to the alleged abduction.
Kituuma Rusoke, the police spokesperson, told the media in Kampala on Monday that they have not registered any reports that two Kenyan activists went missing in Uganda.
“I am not briefed by the police that we have them in our custody. So, at the moment, I do not have any information that they are in police custody.”
