Kenyan activists Bob Njagi [right] and Nicholas Oyoo [left]/ HANDOUTThe Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has issued a formal denial of custody regarding Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who disappeared in Uganda on October 1, 2025.
The two have been missing after they were allegedly abducted by armed men in Uganda.
It is not clear who the four abductors were, officials said.
In a sworn statement on Tuesday, October 21, filed by Colonel Silas Kamanda, the military affirmed that it found no entry for the two men.
The UPDF contended that the two Kenyan nationals are neither detained by them nor located within any of its known facilities.
The officer, acting on behalf of the UPDF, said this was after exhaustive checks of all its detention facilities, records, and registers.
“The undersigned, in obedience to the writ herein, do satisfy and return that Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi are not in the custody of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces,” states the court document.
“We have carried out investigations and searched all relevant detention facilities, records, including lock-up registers, custody records, and found no entry relating to the said Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi between 1st October 2025 to date.”
The denial comes amid ongoing multi-pronged pressure on Ugandan authorities, involving protests by civil society groups, diplomatic attempts by the Kenyan government, and the legal interventions in Kampala.
Earlier, Justice Simon Peter Kinobe ordered the government to produce Njagi and Oyoo within seven days following a habeas corpus application.
The application has since stalled.
Njagi, the chairman of the Free Kenya Movement, and secretary general Oyoo were allegedly abducted on October 1, as they attended an opposition campaign rally for Robert Kyangulanyi in Kampala. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
The two who had joined National Unity Platform Presidential candidate Bobi Wine’s campaign trail were reportedly forced into a vehicle and their mobile phones switched off.
Bobi Wine confirmed the incident and condemned it.
He is seeking to unseat President Yoweri Museveni in the upcoming elections.
Amnesty International Kenya released an online petition calling for the release of the two activists.
In the petition, Amnesty noted that for days, the families of Njagi and Oyoo have lived in fear and uncertainty, desperate for news of their safety.
“Every moment without answers deepens the pain, the worry and the injustice,” Amnesty said.
The petition called on President Yoweri Museveni to, among
others, immediately disclose the whereabouts of Njagi and Oyoo, ensure their
safety, well-being, release and return to Kenya.
