The release of two Kenyan political activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who went missing in Uganda after attending a campaign rally for National Unity Platform presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, on October 1 brought an end to the ping-pong over their whereabouts.
While security and legal agencies had before said they did not know the whereabouts of the activists, President Museveni’s revelation ended the speculation.
‘Here we have got very good intelligence. We arrested two Kenyans who were working with Kyagulanyi’s group, that they are experts in riots,’ President Museveni said during a media briefing at Mbale State Lodge at the weekend.
The President’s comments followed the release of the duo last Friday.
Bobi Wine was among officials who announced their release on Saturday: ‘After 39 days under incommunicado detention and torture, our Kenyan brothers Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo have been released at the Kenya-Uganda border at Busia. They’re now headed back to Nairobi. I have just spoken to them and they have told me that they were being held by Museveni’s son [Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba] at Kasenyi military barracks.’ The duo was last seen on October 1 in Kaliro District, Busoga Sub-region in eastern Uganda, where they were reportedly abducted by armed men in military and civilian clothing at a filling station.
Ugandan authorities are yet to issue an official statement regarding the release. But Ugandan police spokesman Kituma Rusoke told this publication yesterday that the duo was not in their custody. ‘They might have been held by any other security agency in line with issues affecting national security,’ he said. Maj Jimmy Omara, the spokesperson of Special Forces Command, an elite force responsible for guarding the President and important national installations, said he had shared the release details with his leaders and would get us a response as soon as he gets a briefing. On October 6, lawyers from Kiiza and Mugisha Advocates filed a habeas corpus petition, listing four top Ugandan security officials as respondents: Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba; the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security; the Inspector General of Police; and the Attorney General of Uganda.
Their colleague, Koffi Atinda, later filed an affidavit recounting the incident.
‘I witnessed my friends being taken in a Toyota Hiace van, commonly known as a ‘Drone,’ by men in both military and civilian clothes. I later learnt they were taken to Mbuya military facility,’ Atinda stated. ‘As citizens of Kenya and members of the East African Community, we have the right to move freely and participate in civic activities without harassment,’ he said. NUP Secretary General Lewis Rubongoya also filed an affidavit supporting the petition, urging the government to produce the detainees. The High Court in Kampala issued a habeas corpus order on October 14, directing the government to produce the missing Kenyans, dead or alive, by October 21.
Justice Simon Peter Kinobe presided over the case and later dismissed the application on October 22, categorising the men as missing persons, because security agencies denied holding the men and had complied with the court’s order to investigate their whereabouts. Consequently, the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) declined to intervene, citing a lack of jurisdiction due to the matter being before the court. ‘They applied for habeas corpus in the High Court. Article 53 of the Constitution bars us from intervening in any matter that is in court… but I would call upon whatever State agency that is holding them to set them free,’ Ms Mariam Wangadya, the UHRC chairperson, said on October 13.
She responded shortly after a group of activists led by Nobert Ochieng Opeto and Tony Njagi, who are brothers of the activists, joined by their colleagues James Ssuuna and John Owor Masanja, petitioned UHRC on October 10, asking it to act and compel Ugandan security agencies to disclose their whereabouts. On October 16, Ms Isabella Njagi, Mr Njagi’s mother, speaking in a video, appealed to Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni to intervene. ‘I promise you that once released, I will personally talk to them and ask them never to step in Uganda again… We love you and…we are proud to see you mothering that nation,’ she said.