Kenyan citizens Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi were abducted in broad daylight by uniformed officers in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Since then, they have simply vanished. Uganda’s police and military deny involvement, and the Kenyan government has gone silent. Are we witnessing a return to Idi Amin’s terror, or does the 1986 National Resistance Movement (NRM) promise of justice and human rights still have legs three months before the January 2026 general elections?
For the 325 million East Africans born after 1986, President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM came to power, branding a powerful human rights promise. His 19 January 1986 inaugural speech committed to establishing a democratic government, not as a favour but as a right of the people. Government must serve, not master over the people. The proclamation was transformative at the time.
Under the previous regimes of General Idi Amin Dada (1971-1979), Milton Obote (1980-1985), and General Tito Okello led junta (1985-1986), Ugandans experienced one of the most brutal dictatorships in African history. Documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Uganda Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights, and several other Ugandan human rights organisations, millions suffered some of the worst human rights abuses.
By the time the international community had isolated the Amin regime and Pan Africanist Julius Kambarage Nyerere sent Tanzanian troops to topple the dictatorship in 1978, 100,000 to 500,000 human beings had been murdered by the state. Ugandans were tortured, suffocated, beaten, disappeared, and shot en masse. They included political opponents, ethnic minorities like the Acholi and Langi, businesspeople, journalists, judges, civil servants, and religious leaders like Archbishop Janani Luwum. Over 70,000 Asian Ugandan citizens, including US Democratic nominee for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s family, were also expelled and their properties handed over to loyalists.
Tragically, Amin’s exile brought no respite. Largely seen as fraudulent, the 1980 elections that returned Obote to power tragically opened another chapter of state harassment, detention, and killings. Obote turned the Luwero Triangle into a killing field and then, one mass grave. Security agencies profiled, detained, and tortured opponents without charges. Violating international human rights law, civilians were held in mass internment camps or forced to flee to survive.
Rather than rebuild the rule of law and judicial institutions, military tribunals replaced civilian courts, and security agencies silenced critics with impunity. While the 1986 Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights report has never been made public, this history remains painfully vivid for the NRM leadership and elderly Ugandans. Against the backdrop of this violent history and the 1986 promise of reform, the continued use of state violence and enforced disappearances to silence unarmed critics is not just baffling; it is a betrayal of the covenant to break with past tyrannies.
Today marks 25 days since Bob and Nick vanished off Kampala’s busy streets in broad daylight. This Wednesday, a Ugandan court dismissed a habeas corpus application on behalf of the two. Both the UDF affidavit and the court judgment are deeply unsatisfactory. It fails to satisfy their families, and a growing number of campaigners are now in full gear across the world demanding their safe return and justice. One of the initiatives calls on people across the world to email President Yoweri Museveni using the Amnesty Kenya website. Another seeks to remind the Kenyan government of its constitutional obligation to use any means necessary to have the two released.
PETITION
FREE BOB NJAGI AND NICHOLAS OYOO
We are standing together, as Kenyans, as Africans, and as people who believe in justice and human dignity, to call on President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to ensure the safe return of Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo
As campaigns intensify across Kenya, Uganda, and internationally, each day lost by both governments signals complicity, deepens impunity, erodes the East African Community, and degrades their political and moral credibility. While the two governments consider their options and do what is in their power, every moment deepens the families’ pain, public anxiety, and the injustice. Every moment we do not speak up also increases the risk. It is time the Ugandan authorities immediately ensure the safety, well-being, release, and return to their families of Bob Njagi, Nicholas Oyoo, Sam Mugumya, as well as all Ugandan detainees.
Irũngũ Houghton is Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director and writes in his personal capacity. Email: [email protected]