Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has spoken out strongly after reports emerged that two Kenyan human rights defenders were abducted in Kampala while on a visit to support Uganda’s opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine.
In a statement shared on X, Mwangi accused East African governments of normalizing the disappearance of activists and called for the immediate release of the two Kenyans alongside other political prisoners currently held in Uganda.
” East African governments continue to abduct and disappear activists and human rights defenders. The Ugandan government abducted two Kenyan activists visiting to meet Bobi Wine. They should be freed along with jailed political activists,” Mwangi wrote.
The two Kenyans, Bob Nyagi and Nicholas Ayoo, were reportedly seized by armed men at a petrol station in Kireka, Kampala, on Wednesday afternoon and driven to an unknown destination.
Bobi Wine, who first raised alarm over the incident, condemned what he described as “mafia-style” abductions by state operatives targeting those who associate with his movement.
Mwangi’s statement reflects growing regional concern over the safety of activists working across East Africa.He accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of presiding over a rogue system that silences dissent through kidnappings, unlawful arrests, and intimidation.
The abductions are expected to raise diplomatic questions between Kenya and Uganda, especially as families of the missing activists demand answers about their whereabouts.
