6th October 2026, Nairobi,Kenya.
The Defenders Coalition is alarmed by the continued disappearance of human rights defenders (HRDs) Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who reportedly disappeared on 1 October, 2025 in Kampala, Uganda.
Eyewitnesses’ privy to the incident have publicly narrated an account of the two HRDs where they have claimed that the two were forcefully taken by unknown armed people who hurled them into unmarked vehicles ear a petrol station in Kireka, Kampala. The vehicles are reported to have sped off to an unknown destination.
Their mobile phones were immediately switched off with their whereabouts remaining unknown 6 days later, raising grave concern over their security and well-being.
This disturbing incident is part of a pattern where HRDs have been targeted, deported, illegally detained, disappeared and/or tortured in the East African region.
HRDs and journalists, Boniface Mwangi from Kenya and Agather Atuhaire from Uganda, were arrested and disappeared in Dar es Salaam on 19 May 2025. In January 2025, Maria Sarungi, a prominent Tanzanian journalist and human rights activist was abducted and assaulted for about four hours by four unknown men in Nairobi. In November 2024, prominent Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye was disappeared from his apartment in Nairobi and reappeared in a military court in Kampala under a heavily armed military escort.
The Defenders Coalition joins the human rights community in condemning this continued lawlessness, violations, and abuses by suspected state operatives and demands the immediate and unconditional release of Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo
We further call upon the Government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to urgently engage Ugandan authorities to ascertain the safety, status, and prompt release of the two defenders.
We urge Ugandan authorities to immediately give information on the whereabouts of the two HRDs. They must also investigate and hold perpetrators to account for all violations.
Defenders Coalition continues to stand in solidarity with all those courageously speaking truth to power and reaffirm commitment to the safety and protection of human rights defenders in Kenya.