East Africa Law Society warns of eroding rule of law as Kenyan activists, Tanzanian diplomat go missing
EALS demanded immediate disclosure and accountability, urging Uganda to account for Oyoo and Njagi, Tanzania to provide a transparent account of Polepole, and Kenya to do more to secure its citizens’ liberty.
The East Africa Law Society (EALS) has sounded the alarm over the disappearance of Kenyan human rights defenders Nicholas Oyoo and Bob Njagi, who were reportedly abducted in Uganda’s Kaliro District on October 1, 2025, and whose whereabouts remain unknown.
The Society warned that East Africa is sliding toward authoritarianism and the weaponisation of justice, raising concern over the erosion of constitutional safeguards in the region.
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The Society also highlighted the unexplained disappearance of Tanzanian diplomat Humphrey Polepole, describing the incidents as part of a worrying regional trend of cross-border repression that targets both civil society actors and government officials.
Following their disappearance, Oyoo and Njagi’s lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition at the Ugandan High Court, seeking to compel security agencies to produce the missing activists.
"While acknowledging the disappearance following arrest by armed operatives, the Court accepted blanket denials issued by security agencies and classified them as 'missing persons' and advised instead that a police report be filed, effectively laying the writ of liberty to rest under procedural formalities," stated the Lawyers' body.
EALS described the ruling as “morally hollow and jurisprudentially tragic.”
"When courts accept State denial without credible proof or accountability, they cease to be temples of justice and risk becoming altars of impunity. History will judge whether the judiciary is there to preserve liberty or preside over its erosion," the society added.
EALS said the disappearance of the two Kenyan activists, alongside the vanishing of Polepole, demonstrates a troubling trend of cross-border abductions and the silencing of dissent in East Africa.
While Polepole’s case remains unresolved, it underscores the regional dimension of the crisis, showing that both civil society actors and government officials can be targeted.
"These are not isolated incidents: they are the visible symptoms of a broader malaise-the corrosion of constitutionalism and the quiet normalisation of enforced disappearance and cross-border renditions as a tool of political control," said EALS.
According to the Society, these incidents violate constitutional guarantees of life, liberty, and due process in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, as well as international obligations under Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Articles 7, 9, and 14 of the ICCPR, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).
"Law without justice is tyranny. Courts without moral courage become echoes of executive will. The enforced disappearance of East African citizens is not merely a crime against individuals; it is an assault on civilisation itself," the Lawyers' body emphasised.
EALS demanded immediate disclosure and accountability, urging Uganda to account for Oyoo and Njagi, Tanzania to provide a transparent account of Polepole, and Kenya to do more to secure its citizens’ liberty.
The Society called for independent and impartial investigations, with each State conducting credible, time-bound inquiries, publishing findings, and prosecuting perpetrators.
It emphasised the need for judicial renewal and integrity, insisting that courts reclaim their role as guardians of liberty. EALS also requested regional oversight, asking the EAC Secretariat, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to investigate urgently.
Finally, it urged all EAC Partner States to ratify and domesticate the ICPPED, criminalising enforced disappearance as a distinct, continuing offence.
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