Two Kenyan political activists who were allegedly abducted after attending a campaign rally organised by Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, the presidential candidate of Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party, have been declared missing persons by the High Court in Kampala.
In his ruling on the habeas corpus application that was before him, presiding Judge Simon Peter Kinobe reasoned that since the security forces complied with his orders by indicating that they were not holding Mr Nicholas Oyoo and Mr Bob Njagi, the court couldn’t now order them to produce what they don’t have.
‘I would therefore categorise the applicants (Oyoo and Njagi) as missing persons. A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed, as their location and condition are unknown,’ ruled Justice Kinobe.
He added: ‘A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, or death. In Uganda, the police are the default agency charged with leading investigations into cases of missing persons. I would advise counsel for the applicants to commence these investigations by filing a missing person’s report with the Uganda Police Force.’
‘I find that one cannot squeeze blood from a stone. The State can only produce what it has, and it would therefore be unrealistic to expect the desired outcome from circumstances that could not, in any case, yield it.’ It is alleged that on October 1, the activists, during their stay in Uganda, were abducted by men wielding guns, clad in military uniform and plain clothes at a filling station in Kaliro District, where they had parked their vehicle.
Justice Kinobe went on to state that the Chief of Defence Forces and the Chief of Defence Intelligence, who were among the respondents in the habeas corpus application, denied having any knowledge of the duo’s whereabouts.
‘On October 14, 2025, I issued an order against the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respondents requiring them to produce the bodies of the applicants, dead or alive, in court. I also instructed them to take further initiative by conducting investigations to ascertain the whereabouts of the applicants,’ held Justice Kinobe.
He added: ‘On October 25, 2025, two returns were filed in this court, one for and on behalf of the 3rd respondent and another for and on behalf of the 1st and 2nd respondents. The return of the 3rd respondent was signed by Stephan Bwalatum, a detective in the Uganda Police Force, stating that the applicants are not in any detention facility or in the custody of the Uganda Police Force.’
But one of the friends of the missing duo, Mr Koffi Atinda, in his affidavit claimed to have witnessed the arrest of his colleagues and that he survived by a whisker.
‘They were taken in a Toyota Hiace van, commonly known as drone and whisked away at a terrible speed to a place one of them told me was Mbuya [a Kampala suburb],’ he claimed.
Lawyer Eron Kiiza on his x handle posted on Wednesday saying court ‘dismissed our habeas corpus application. This is a colossal setback in the quest for their liberty. Nonetheless, the quest for their liberty goes on”.
Explanation.
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed, as their location and condition are unknown…In Uganda, the police are the default agency charged with leading investigations into cases of missing persons. I would advise counsel for the applicants to commence these investigations by filing a missing person’s report with the Uganda Police Force…I find that one cannot squeeze blood from a stone. The State can only produce what it has, and it would therefore be unrealistic to expect the desired outcome from circumstances that could not, in any case, yield it.”- Justice Simon Peter Kinobe