Two Kenyan activists who were abducted in broad daylight while attending an opposition rally in Uganda have been released, human rights groups said on Saturday.
Nicholas Oyu and Bob Njagi traveled to Kampala last month to support Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine, who will run against longtime President Yoweri Museveni in next year’s election.
What do we know about his release?
Human rights groups wrote on Twitter that they welcomed the release of Oyu and Nhagi on Friday night in Busia, Kenya, after they had been missing for more than a month.
Posts by Amnesty Kenya, Vocal Africa and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said the groups were “facilitating their transfer to Nairobi.”
“Let this moment signal a turning point in the East African community towards upholding the human rights of East Africans everywhere,” the joint statement said.
kenyan daily newspaper daily nation Diplomatic efforts by the Kenyan government were reported to have facilitated the couple’s release.
The newspaper quoted a government official on Saturday as saying that both men are now back on Kenyan soil and have been reunited with their families.
Oyu’s elder brother, Nobert Ochieng, 53, told the AFP news agency that his freedom was a “big relief, because it has been a very painful and difficult month for us.”
What is known about his disappearance?
Media reports said the pair were abducted by armed men from a petrol station in the town of Kira, on the outskirts of Kampala, on 1 October.
Shortly after their disappearance, the pair went out of contact on their cell phones daily nation Informed.
Vocal Africa’s executive director, Hussein Khaled, cited eyewitnesses as saying they had seen two activists being abducted by masked, uniformed and armed men – pointing to solid evidence of state complicity in their disappearance.
Police in Uganda later denied that any activists were being detained.
Wine wrote on Saturday X that the men were being held in a military barracks in Entebbe under the Ugandan Special Forces Command.
Local media reported that the barracks is known for past incidents of torture and illegal detention.
He told that the pair had told in Vine that they were interrogated for several days.
The Kenyan foreign ministry wrote to its Ugandan counterpart last week complaining that it had not received a formal response to several diplomatic notes from Kampala requesting information on the men’s whereabouts.
Increase in international kidnappings in East Africa
There are growing concerns about international kidnappings and the erosion of civil liberties in East Africa.
Dozens of government critics and opposition figures have been kidnapped within the region in recent years.
Those taken were primarily political activists, opposition figures, and critics, targeted in one country and transferred, often forcibly, to another country for detention, torture, or trial.
They include activists Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda, who said they were captured and tortured by security forces in Tanzania in May.
The latest incident has led to urgent calls for accountability for human rights and more robust regional safeguards.
Edited by: Sam Dusan Inayatullah