KAMULI, Uganda Two Kenyan political activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, were allegedly abducted by four armed individuals, suspected to be security officials, in Eastern Uganda on Wednesday afternoon.
The two activists had joined the campaign trail of National Unity Platform (NUP) President Bobi Wine, who is campaigning ahead of the 2026 presidential elections in his bid to unseat President Yoweri Museveni. According to witnesses, Njagi and Oyoo were forcibly taken and their phones subsequently switched off.
Video footage from Bobi Wine’s campaign rally in Kamuli District, Eastern Uganda, on Tuesday clearly shows Bob Njagi, the Chairman of the Free Kenya Movement, on stage alongside the Ugandan opposition leader.
Other clips corroborate their close involvement, showing Njagi keenly listening to and traversing rural areas with the NUP entourage. A friend who managed to escape the ordeal claims the incident is directly linked to their vocal support for the opposition figure.
Details of the abduction
A friend of the activists, who spoke on condition of anonymity, provided a detailed account of the events. The three Kenyans traveled from Kenya on Monday, accompanied by two Ugandans who later left them in Kampala.
The Kenyans then linked up with the NUP campaign, spending Tuesday traveling across Buyende and Kamuli Districts with the NUP leadership.
The mission took a dark turn on Wednesday afternoon. The group had stopped at a petrol station to repair their car when the alleged abduction occurred.
The witness recounted the chilling incident: “At around 3pm there are some guys who came with a van looked to be greyish in colour, people came out with guns. They were four of them there was also a lady who was seated in front they took Bob and Oyoo Ochieng who is the secretary general of the Free Kenya Movement.”
The witness revealed that he was also initially taken but was inexplicably released shortly after. Describing the moment of his release, he added: “I told them that my car is not locked, I cannot go to where I don’t know, and then they asked me to just get out and then go and lock my car.”
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The armed men then sped off, and within moments, both Njagi and Oyoo’s phones were unreachable. Fearing for his safety in the foreign country, the surviving colleague has not reported the matter to the authorities.
He expressed his panic and uncertainty over the activists’ whereabouts, stating: “I don’t know where Bob is. I don’t know which police station he has been taken to. I honestly don’t know where he is. I’m just stranded here.”
Regional and personal context
This alleged cross-border security operation comes just four months after a similar incident involving Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, who were arrested in Tanzania and later claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Tanzanian authorities before being released near their respective borders.
For Bob Njagi, this is not the first time he has allegedly been targeted by security forces; last year, he was reportedly abducted alongside the Longton brothers over suspected links to anti-government protests and disappeared for over a month.
The recurrent nature of such cross-border incidents involving opposition activists raises profound concerns about civil liberties and political freedoms within the East African region.
