Abductions of government critics and opposition
figures are on the rise across East Africa, sparking allegations that regional
authorities are colluding to silence dissent.
The latest victims are Kenyan activists Bob Njagi
and Nicholas Oyoo, who were reportedly taken by armed men at a petrol
station after attending a rally for Ugandan opposition leader Robert
Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, on Wednesday.
Rights group VOCAL Africa said it had lost
contact with the pair.
“Their phones are off… I think they knew they were
Kenyans,” the group’s director Hussein Khalid told AFP. “The East Africa
cross-border abductions are getting out of hand now. We have seen the same in
Kenya, in Uganda, in Tanzania. It’s worrying that the three states may be
working together to suppress freedoms in the region.”
A Pattern of Abductions
In May, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and
Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire alleged they were abducted and
tortured for days by Tanzanian security forces. Their governments offered muted
responses, with Nairobi saying only that it had “engaged diplomatically” but
avoiding open criticism.
Njagi has also previously claimed he was abducted by
Kenyan security forces last year over his role in anti-government protests.
Ugandan opposition leaders have long accused President
Yoweri Museveni’s government of targeting dissenters. Wine, who faces
Museveni in elections next January, called the latest incident “continuing
lawlessness by the rogue regime,” accusing authorities of abducting Njagi and
Oyoo “simply for associating with me and expressing solidarity with our cause.”
Another veteran Ugandan opposition figure, Kizza
Besigye, was kidnapped in Kenya last year and smuggled back to Uganda to
face trial for treason.
Silence From Authorities
AFP said attempts to reach the Ugandan police
and Kenya’s interior and foreign ministries for comment were
unsuccessful.
Rights groups warn that the trend points to a
dangerous erosion of freedoms in East Africa, where collaboration between
governments against activists is increasingly suspected.
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