Ce qu’il faut retenir
Two Kenyan human-rights defenders vanished in broad daylight in Kampala on 1 October 2025. Witnesses say armed men whisked Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo away from a filling station. Their disappearance, revealed a day later, has fuelled accusations of a cross-border abduction network menacing civil society across East Africa.
Contexte
Njagi and Oyoo belong to Free Kenya, a youth-led movement that had travelled to Uganda to support opposition leader Bobi Wine’s presidential campaign. Their choice of Kampala’s northern suburb of Kireka for a midday refuelling stop proved tragic: at 15:00, unidentified gunmen seized them, according to testimonies gathered by Amnesty International.
The style, witnesses contend, was rapid and intimidating. On social platform X, Bobi Wine condemned what he called “un enlèvement de style mafieux”, hinting that Ugandan security structures might be behind the operation. Kampala has not responded publicly, while Ugandan police have remained silent.
Calendrier
Reports indicate the abduction happened on Wednesday and was confirmed publicly on Thursday, compressing the response time for both families and diplomats. Kenyan officials were alerted late on 2 October; by the morning of 3 October, Nairobi had issued a formal inquiry to Kampala without receiving an answer.
Acteurs
At the centre are the two activists, known in Nairobi for organising peaceful rallies against corruption. Free Kenya now juggles crisis communication and mounting legal fees while urging the Kenyan government to invoke regional protocols on the protection of human-rights defenders.
Three NGOs—Amnesty International, Vocal Africa and the Law Society of Kenya—have co-signed an open letter to Uganda’s embassy in Nairobi, denouncing what they term “un système d’enlèvements en Afrique de l’Est” and labeling it “répression transnationale”. The groups call for immediate disclosure of the pair’s whereabouts and safe handover.
Transnational repression in East Africa
Human-rights monitors say the Kampala incident fits a disturbingly familiar template. In May 2025, Ugandan lawyer Agathe Athuaire and Kenyan photojournalist Boniface Mwangi were taken in Dar es Salaam, only to reappear days later at their respective borders. Last November, Ugandan politician Kizza Besigye vanished in Kenya before resurfacing before a Ugandan military court.
These episodes suggest an informal yet resilient web of security cooperation that bypasses extradition treaties. Analysts argue that the tactic seeks to punish dissent while minimising judicial oversight, effectively externalising repression across porous frontiers. Civil-society coalitions now track disappearances and share real-time alerts to expose the practice.
Regional diplomatic implications
The abduction places fresh strain on Kenya–Uganda relations, traditionally framed as pragmatic and commercially driven. Joint infrastructure projects may now compete with pressures for accountability, as Nairobi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, admits it has “no information” on the activists’ location.
Within the East African Community, the episode could revive debate on the bloc’s human-rights clause. Some legislators argue that the credibility of regional integration hinges on mutual respect for civic freedoms, while others caution against politicising security cooperation. For now, quiet diplomacy coexists uneasily with public outrage.
Legal dimension
Under both the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Uganda’s constitution, forced disappearance is prohibited. Yet enforcement mechanisms remain weak. Victims’ lawyers are preparing habeas corpus applications in Kampala’s High Court, but jurisdictional hurdles arise because the presumed abductors operated off-duty and unmarked.
In Nairobi, attorneys weigh invoking universal jurisdiction provisions that allow Kenyan courts to investigate crimes against citizens committed abroad. Previous attempts have stalled on evidentiary grounds, underscoring the importance of eyewitness testimony and digital forensics from the Kireka petrol station’s CCTV.
Scénarios
Optimists foresee the pair released quietly at a border post, mirroring earlier cases, after behind-the-scenes bargaining between security chiefs. Such an outcome would limit diplomatic fallout yet leave the structural problem intact.
A bleaker scenario involves formal charges under Uganda’s Public Order Management Act, extending detention and igniting court battles that test regional legal cooperation. For civil society, either path emphasises the urgency of stronger safeguards against transnational repression in East Africa.
