Kampala court throws out case on missing Kenyan activists
Courts
By
Nancy Gitonga and Emmanuel Kipchumba
| Oct 24, 2025
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo deepened after the High Court of Uganda dismissed an application seeking to compel the government of President Yoweri Museveni to produce them.
The ruling came as activists in Nairobi chained themselves to the gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs along Harambee Avenue, chanting and blowing whistles to demand urgent government action.
Justice Simon Peter Kinobe of the Civil Division in Kampala held that there was no convincing evidence that the activists, who were abducted on October 1, were in the custody of any State agency.
“I find that one cannot squeeze blood from a stone. The State can only produce what it has, and it would therefore be unrealistic to expect the desired outcome from circumstances that could not, in any case, yield,” said Justice Kinobe.
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He therefore classified the activists as “missing persons”, defining the term in his ruling as persons “who have disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown”.
Justice Kinobe advised the legal team to lodge a formal missing persons report with the police.
The case, brought by lawyers among them Martha Karua, had sought orders compelling the Ugandan government and its security organs to produce Njagi and Oyoo in court, alive or dead.
The application named the Chief of Defence Forces, the Chief of Defence Intelligence and Security, the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of Uganda as respondents.
Petitioners alleged that the pair, both members of a civic organisation linked to the African Movement, were abducted while attending a campaign event for opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, in Kaliro District in eastern Uganda.
Witnesses who gave evidence in court claimed the activists were taken by armed men in military and civilian clothing and forced into a Toyota Hiace van, a vehicle that has been associated with forced disappearances in the region.
The lawyers argued that the two were being held incommunicado at a military detention facility in Mbuya under the control of military intelligence officers.
But state agencies denied the allegation. Colonel Silas Kamanda, director of Joint Staff Services at the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, swore an affidavit saying investigators had searched detention facilities and custody records and found no entries relating to the two.
An affidavit from Bwalatum Stephan of the Uganda Police echoed the military’s position. The police also told the court that no formal report of the activists disappearance had been filed.
Speaking after the ruling, Karua described the decision as disappointing, saying it leaves the families and supporters in anguish and uncertainty.
“Bob and Nicholas were last seen in the custody of men believed to be state agents. It is alarming that the Ugandan government now says it knows nothing about their whereabouts. We shall continue to demand accountability,” she said.
In Nairobi, activists accused the Kenyan government of inaction. The protestors said they would not relent until the government secured answers from Museveni’s administration.
“We aare not going home. We are not relenting until Bob and Nicholas are released immediately by the abductors,” said Fred Ojiro of Vocal Africa.
They blamed Museveni and President William Ruto of collusion, and accused Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi of inaction.