Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo
By Gabriel Somba
A Ugandan lawyer has petitioned the high court in Kampala to order for the release of Kenyan activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo abducted in Eastern Uganda on October 1.
Koffi Atinda has sued Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Chief of Defense Intelligence and Security (CDIS), the Inspector General of police and the country’s Attorney General to release the two- dead or alive.
Atinda says the two political activists were arrested in Kaliiro District and are currently detained at Mbuya, Kampala in a military facility manned by CDIS.
They were picked up while in a campaign trail of Ugandan presidential aspirant Robert Kyangulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine who is campaigning to unseat continental leadership fossil and despot Yoweri Museveni.
Atinda says the detention of the two held incommunicado is arbitrary and blatant abuse of their fundamental human rights including personal liberty, freedom of movement, human dignity and freedom from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment. They have not been presented in court on any charges.
The lawyer says the two had arrived in Uganda to show solidarity with Kyangulanyi who is their personal friend and were arrested at a fuel station by armed men in uniform and others in civilian clothes in his presence where he escaped narrowly.
“I witnessed their arrest and survived arrest by whisker. They were taken in a Toyota Hiace van commonly known as drone and whisked away at a terrible speed to place one of them told me was Mbuya,” states Atinda.
“There is palpable concern among the friends and families (of the two) that they could be subjected to torture, inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the military which is notorious for torturing, harassing and persecuting critics of President Museveni and his inner circle.”
He tells the court that it is urgent and important to bring to an end the continued illegal detention of the two activists.
The lawyer wants the high court to declare that the detention of Njagi and Oyoo without opportunity to inform their families and lawyers or taking them to court is in contravention of Uganda’s constitution, unlawful and contravenes and violates their human rights.
