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Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, a reggae musician turned politician.
Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.
The activists had reportedly travelled from Kenya to Uganda on Monday to support Wine – real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu – at his campaign rallies in the eastern region.
In a video of an event on Tuesday, Njagi could be seen on stage beside Wine, who leads Uganda’s National Unity Platform party.
“They attended the first rally in eastern Uganda and left the campaign trail and came to Kampala, where two of them were picked up by security operatives; some in police uniform and others in plain clothes and up to now their whereabouts is not known,” said Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan lawyer, journalist and critic of the government of President Yoweri Museveni.
“This is another incident in what is seen as transborder repression that has become commonplace in east Africa.”
Atuhaire and the Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi were themselves detained in Tanzania during a visit in support of an opposition politician. Both said they were beaten and tortured before being dumped at their countries’ borders.
Kizza Besigye, a prominent Ugandan opposition leader, and his aide Obeid Lutale were detained in Kenya in November. Besigye was later charged with treason at a military court martial in Kampala.
Atuhaire said: “It points to two possible scenarios: that the three authoritarian [leaders] in east Africa are working together to crack down on critics, activists and journalists, or that they are very afraid of a united east Africa and that’s why they use force on east Africans being seen supporting their fellow east Africans who are victims of their repression – or both.”
Njagi was abducted last year by masked men in Nairobi during a wave of abductions believed to have been targeted at critics of the Kenyan government. He was held incommunicado for 32 days for advocating progressive economic reforms and better governance.
Wine, who is challenging Museveni in Uganda’s presidential elections in January, criticised the abductions.
“We condemn the continuing lawlessness by the rogue regime and demand that these brothers are released unconditionally,” the 43-year-old said on X.
“The criminal regime apparently abducted them simply for associating with me and expressing solidarity with our cause.”
Uganda’s police spokesperson, Rusoke Kituuma, did not respond to repeated calls to comment on the matter. The government has made no statement.
Museveni, 81, has held power in Uganda since 1986 and is one of the world’s longest standing national leaders.
