Kenyan activists missing in Uganda found safe after five weeks

Human rights groups in Kenya say two activists who disappeared in neighbouring Uganda five weeks ago have turned up alive and well.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo being forced into a car by masked uniformed men after a political event where they were supporting the Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine.

On Saturday, activist organisation Vocal Africa confirmed the men were safe, and being transported from Busia in Uganda to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

“Let this moment signal an important shift towards upholding the human rights of East Africans anywhere in East African Community,” the organisation wrote on its Instagram page.

Ugandan police denied the men were in their custody, but Kenyan rights groups lobbied the Ugandan authorities to free them.

In a joint statement, Vocal Africa, the Law Society of Kenya and Amnesty International thanked the Kenyan and Ugandan governments, activists, journalists, diplomats and “all active citizens who have tirelessly campaigned for this moment”.

Former pop star Bobi Wine is running for the presidency in next year’s elections, challenging President Yoweri Museveni, 80, who has held power since 1986.

Wine accused the Ugandan government of targeting the two Kenyans for associating with him.

Ugandan security agencies have often been accused of orchestrating the detention of opposition politicians and supporters while not in uniform. Some of those arrested have later resurfaced in court facing criminal charges.

The latest disappearances mirror past incidents involving politicians and activists across the East African region.

Last year, Njagi was picked up in Kenya by masked men during a wave of abductions believed to have been targeting government critics in the country.

He surfaced a month later, after a court ordered police to produce him. He later recounted the harrowing conditions in captivity, where he said he was often isolated and denied food.

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 – allegations which police dismissed as “hearsay”.

Last year, another Uganda opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, mysteriously disappeared in Nairobi only to surface four days later in a military court in Uganda, where he faces treason charges.

The cases have since sparked widespread condemnation and concerns that East African governments could be collaborating to contain dissent.