The Uganda People's Defence Forces has denied holding two Kenyan activists who vanished in Kampala three weeks ago. Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo disappeared on October 1 while attending a meeting with opposition leader Bobi Wine. Despite court orders, their whereabouts remain unknown.
Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, two Kenyan activists, have been missing for 21 days after disappearing in Kampala, Uganda, on October 1, 2025. They were in the country to attend a meeting with National Unity Platform presidential candidate Bobi Wine, a prominent opposition leader.
A witness who was also abducted but later released reported that the pair were bundled into a van at gunpoint while seeking services at a petrol station in Kireka township, just outside Kampala. Speculation later arose that they might be held in a military detention camp in Mbuya, Kampala.
On October 14, Ugandan High Court Justice Peter Kinobe issued a habeas corpus order, directing the government to produce Njagi and Oyoo, dead or alive, within seven days. The deadline expired on October 21 without compliance.
In response, Colonel Silas Kamanda, Director at the UPDF's Joint Staff Legal Services, filed court documents on October 21 stating that searches of all detention centers yielded no results. 'I, Silas Kamanda, a Colonel in the Uganda People's Defence Forces... do satisfy and return that Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi are not in the custody of the Uganda People's Defence Forces,' the declaration read in part. He added, 'We have carried out investigations and searched all relevant detention facilities and records, including lockup registers and custody records, and found no entry relating to the said Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi between October 1, 2025, to date.'
The Uganda National Police had earlier denied involvement. On October 6, during a State of Security press briefing, spokesperson ACP Kituuma Rusoke said, 'On the matter of the two Kenyan activists who disappeared in Uganda, I am not briefed by the police that we have them in our custody. So at the moment, I do not have any information to the effect that they are in police custody.'
Two Ugandan advocates filed the petition holding the UPDF and police accountable. With the military's denial, the mystery surrounding the activists' fate deepens, leaving their families and supporters without answers.