Why Uganda's latest abductions revive memories of Amin-era atrocities

The abduction and disappearance of two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, in Kampala early this month mirror similar human rights violations committed against Kenyans in the 1970s by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada.

The whereabouts of freedom fighter Kung’u Karumba and Makerere University student Esther Chesire have never been traced since they were abducted by Ugandan security forces in the mid-seventies.

Now, five decades after Karumba and Chesire went missing, there is growing concern that  Njagi and Oyoo may never return home to their loved ones.

Current leaders of the two countries, Presidents William Ruto and Yoweri Museveni, appear uninterested in pursuing justice for the rights crusaders.

Karumba, who alongside Jomo Kenyatta was one of the Kapenguria Six detained by the colonial government for agitating for Kenya’s independence, also disappeared without a trace in 1974 under mysterious circumstances in Kampala.

Whereas his five colleagues — Kenyatta, Paul Ngei, Bildad Kagia, Ochieng’ Oneko, and Fred Kubai — chose to pursue politics, Karumba ventured into the transport business, clearing goods from Kenya to Uganda.

Among his clients was a Ugandan woman who owed him money, prompting him to travel across the border to recover his cash.

It later emerged that she was unwilling to pay and was well connected with government operatives.

Political scientist Prof Amukowa Anangwe recalls reports in the media at the time suggesting that the woman was a close friend of Brigadier Isaac Malyamungu, a dreaded military officer notorious for executing activists and opponents of Amin.

She allegedly contacted Malyamungu, who wasted little time in killing Karumba and dumping his body into the crocodile-infested River Nile.

Malyamungu whose name in Swahili means “property of God” was born Isaac Lugonzo. He was one of Amin’s most trusted officers, notorious for torturing and killing critics during the dictator’s eight-year rule.

Serving alongside him were other infamous soldiers: Colonel Ali, Lt Col Farouk Minawa, Lt Col Hussein Malera, and Maj Gen Mustafa Adrisi.

The Daily Monitor reported that Malyamungu was born in Eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and that his parents were from the Kakwa clan, which Amin belonged to.

He allegedly migrated to Uganda and took up work as a gatekeeper at the Nyanza Textile Factory in Jinja before joining the army, where he quickly rose through the ranks.

It is said that he wielded the power of life and death, executing anyone even senior officers without question, a reign of terror that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

According to Prof Anangwe, the difference between abductions under President Museveni and those during Amin’s era is that now instructions appear to come from the top, unlike then, when any policeman or operative could abduct and kill.

“Museveni has introduced some level of discipline. Instructions must have come from either him or his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for Njagi and Oyoo to be abducted,” says Anangwe.

He believes the Ugandan police may not even know where the two are being held, as their names do not appear in any occurrence book. They are probably detained in a facility inaccessible to regular police officers.

Apart from Karumba, Chesire, a law student at Makerere University, was abducted in February 1976 after Amin’s secret agents seized her from the Entebbe International Airport departure lounge.

Chesire, the sister of the late politician Reuben Chesire and former Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairperson Zipporah Kittony, has remained missing for nearly 50 years.

Anangwe recalls those high-profile disappearances vividly, noting how they strained relations between Kenya and Uganda, with Kenyatta’s government threatening war if Chesire was not released.

Uganda repeatedly assured Kenya that she was alive, seemingly to buy time as diplomatic tensions escalated. Ugandan authorities gave conflicting accounts that she had fled to Kenya or had been caught in a love triangle, claims dismissed by Kenyan officials.

They also alleged that she was involved in an incident that led to the mysterious shooting of her classmate Paul Serwanga, days before students left the university

As the situation deteriorated, Kenya withdrew all its students from Makerere University and relocated them to the University of Nairobi.

In an attempt to placate Kenya, Amin appointed a Commission of Inquiry into Chesire’s disappearance, but its findings were never made public

It has also been widely reported that Amin, who once served as a police officer in Nyeri, left Kenya with his girlfriend Wamuyu wa Murage after relocating to Uganda.

Wamuyu, the youngest in a family of six, later vanished and was believed to have been killed by the bloodthirsty leader.

On October 1, 2025, suspected Ugandan police officers dragged Njagi and Oyoo into an unmarked Toyota Hiace, the type of van commonly used by security forces. Despite repeated protests, both the police and the army deny holding them in custody.

Although a Ugandan court recently ordered Museveni’s government to produce the missing activists within seven days following a habeas corpus petition filed by two Ugandan lawyers, hope for their release is fading.

The same judge, Justice Simon Peter Kinobe, who presided over the case, has since ruled that the government cannot be compelled to produce them — dead or alive — if police and the army claim not to have them in custody.

Demands by People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua, who is also part of the activists’ legal team, for President Ruto to intervene have fallen on deaf ears.

Karua joined activists at a press conference this past week, calling for action from the Kenya Kwanza administration and attended court sessions in Kampala to argue their case.

“President William Ruto, who now chairs the East African Community, is silent.’’