Lawyers of two Kenyan activists arrested by armed men in Uganda last week have petitioned the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala to hear their case seeking orders to have them freed from detention.
Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi were arrested and whisked away shortly after they attended a political rally of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine. Bobi heads Uganda’s largest opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP).
The lawyers, Kiiza & Mugisha Co Advocates, listed as respondents Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, the Chief of Defense Intelligence and Security, the Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General.
Their petition against the State security agents is supported by an affidavit by Mr Koffi Atinda, a colleague of Mr Njagi, who avers he witnessed the abduction of his colleagues by security agents after Bobi’s rally in Kaliro District, eastern Uganda.
Bobi campaigned in Buyende and Kamuli districts on Tuesday, and in Kaliro and Luuka districts on Wednesday.
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Mr Koffi, in a sworn statement, 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.”
“The applicants have since been in an illegal and incommunicado detention for more than 48 hours, and they are incommunicado without trial or any charges preferred against them,” he adds.
M Koffi said his colleagues, who are members of the African Movement, had come to Uganda to show support for Bobi 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 Koffi 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.
M Koffi states there is a palpable concern among the friends and family of the abducted duo that they could be subjected to torture and inhumane treatment at the hands of the military, which has been cited for torturing, harassing, and persecuting critics of President Museveni and his inner circle.
“It’s important that this honorable court brings to an end the illegal military detention of the applicants and orders their unconditional liberty,” he pleaded to the court.
By press time last night, it was not clear when the court would convene to hear the application for habeas corpus, although the Constitution demands that matters of human rights should be fast-tracked.
The Kenyan High Commission in Kampala issued a statement to Uganda’s Foreign Affairs ministry last Friday, inquiring about the whereabouts and situation of the activists following petitions from Vocal Africa and the families of the activists to Kenya’s Foreign Affairs ministry. It was unclear whether a response had been made.
But the police have refuted the claims linking them to the alleged abduction of the Kenyan activists.
Kenyan activist Bob Njagi during an interview in Kitengela town, Kajiado County, on May 29, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Mr Kituuma Rusoke, the police spokesperson, told the media in Kampala yesterday that they have not registered any reports that two Kenyan activists went missing in Uganda.
“On the matter of the two Kenyan activists who went missing, 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,” the Assistant Commissioner of Police said.
Mr Kituuma Rusoke had earlier suggested that this publication could reach out to other security agencies for clarification. But Maj Gen Felix Kulayigye, the director of Defence Public Information, said in a phone interview that the accuser, Bobi Wine, had not provided proof of the alleged abduction.
Maj Gen Kulayigye said he could not comment on allegations involving non-uniformed individuals without evidence. He challenged Bobi Wine to present evidence, including the vehicle number plate, to enable the security agencies to verify the claims.
“In law, the onus of proof lies in the hands of the accuser,” Maj Gen Kulayigye said.
But Mr Kyagulanyi said the two Kenyans were being targeted by the government for associating with him and expressing solidarity with their cause. He demanded their unconditional release.
There are conflicting accounts about the location of arrest, with Bobi posting on his X platform that the duo was “picked up mafia-style … from a petrol station in Kireka [in Waliso District, on the outskirts of Kampala] and driven off to an unknown destination.”
The activists reportedly travelled to Uganda on Monday with some Ugandans before linking up with Bobi’s campaign.
Several rights activists have put up posters of the two missing Kenyans on their social media platforms, demanding their immediate release.
The security agents in plain clothes have often been accused of abducting, detaining, and torturing Opposition politicians and supporters, with some of the victims resurfacing in court on several charges, including treason.
On Sunday, former Assistant Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kampala, Dr Hannington Mutebi, condemned what he called the rampant abductions of opposition members by security forces.
Dr Mutebi, who, while officiating at the confirmation of 47 young faithful at St John’s Church, Makerere, said the government should champion the rule of law and not abduct and throw into safe houses and prisons, citizens and other people with dissenting views.
He called for a country where everybody's rights are respected and such people are instead brought to the courts of law.
Eight presidential candidates who were nominated last month are traversing the country to canvass votes in the January 2026 General Election. They are Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, of NUP party, Mr James Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Maj Gen (rtd) Gregory Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), and Mubarak Munyagwa of the Common Man's Party.
Others are Frank Bulira Kabinga of the Revolutionary People’s Party (RPP), Yoweri Museveni of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), Elton Joseph Mabirizi of the Conservative Party, and Robert Kasibante of the National Peasants Party.
Earlier this year, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and his Ugandan counterpart Agather Atuhaire were detained in Tanzania and held incommunicado for days before being abandoned at their respective national borders. They later recounted being brutally mistreated, including sexual torture at the hands of the Tanzanian authorities.
Last year, another Ugandan opposition figure, Col (rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye, mysteriously disappeared in Nairobi only to surface four days later in a military court in Uganda, where he was charged with charges.
The cases have since sparked widespread condemnation and concerns that East African governments could be collaborating to contain dissent.
