In his affidavit, Col. Silas Kamanda, a Director at the Joint Staff Legal Services, on behalf of the UPDF, said that rigorous investigations have established that the two activists are not in the army’s custody.
“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,” he said.
“We therefore confirm that they are not within the custody of the Uganda people’s defenceforces and we do not know their whereabouts.”
Oyoo and Njagi were abducted on October 1 in Uganda by four armed men believed to be security officials.
The two, who had joined National Unity Platform presidential candidate Bobi Wine’s campaign trail were reportedly forced into a vehicle and their phones switched off.
Bobi Wine has faulted the President Yoweri Museveni-led regime for propping impunity and violating human rights, noting that the regime has been using abductions as a tool for silencing its critics and denies having them in custody.
“Like it did with comrade Sam Mugumya, whom it abducted 2 months ago and remains missing to date, the shameless Museveni regime has also denied having in its custody our Kenyan comrades Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo whom it abducted in Kampala on 1st October! A regime that came to power 40 years promising to end gross human rights violations is now blatantly engaging in even worse! We must end this impunity once and for all, fellow Ugandans!” Bobi wrote on X.
Human rights activists have demanded the release of the two, calling on East African heads of state to address the alarming abduction trend in the region and allow for freedom of speech.
