Two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, have spoken publicly for the first time about their 38-day detention in Uganda, detailing torture, isolation and what they described as a “fridge”, a secret military site where they say dozens of Ugandans remain held without trial.
Njagi and Oyoo went missing on October 1 after their car broke down at a petrol station near Kampala. “Our vehicle broke down, so we left it at Stabex petrol station. I only found out later that the station is owned by the president of Kenya,” Njagi told reporters in Nairobi. The next morning, seven armed men confronted them and took them away.
Njagi said they were blindfolded, chained and beaten during interrogation, accused of working with opposition leader Bobi Wine. “I was tortured on the second day. They chained me to a chair with one hand and hit me while asking questions,” he said. “They gave us paracetamol so we could heal quietly for those 38 days.” Oyoo added, “No sunlight, no air, it was total isolation.”
Njagi explained that the “fridge” refers to a Special Forces Command facility in Sera Kasenyi, Entebbe, allegedly used to hold government critics incommunicado. “That’s the place they call the fridge, it’s one of several detention sites where hundreds are being kept without charge,” Njagi said.
He further claimed that the operation was carried out by a “militia” linked to General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and accused regional governments of collusion.
“Our arrest was coordinated… the Kenyan government knew we were crossing over and raised the alarm and those guys did the dirty job,” he alleged.
Ugandan authorities initially denied detaining the pair, but President Museveni later confirmed they were in custody, describing them as “experts in riots” who had been “put in the fridge for some days.”
Their release on November 7 followed intense diplomatic pressure from Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which confirmed engaging Kampala after the activists’ disappearance.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International Kenya, Law Society of Kenya and VOCAL Africa, condemned the ordeal and called for a transparent investigation, saying “enforced disappearances and torture have no place in our region.”
Njagi and Oyoo have since urged the release of others they say remain in the “fridge” and appealed to Kenyans to stand with victims of rights abuses across East Africa.
