NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 16 – Amnesty International has raised concerns over the growing number of abductions in Kenya, warning that the trend could damage the country’s standing on the global stage.
The agency’s Regional Researcher Roland Ebole who spoke on Capital in the Morning Show emphasized the urgency of halting the disturbing pattern to ensure Kenya upholds international human rights standards.
“We should talk about ending these cross-border repression that we are seeing, bring accountability, and call for justice,” he said.
“Kenya is set to be one of the largest UN hubs so you can imagine the kind of profile Key has and yet you can see the kind of violations that are happening.”
Ebole stressed the need for the government to be held accountable, citing the alarming rise in abductions, particularly following the June 2024 Gen Z protests President William Ruto’s administration.
The government has increasingly come under sharp public scrutiny following a growing trend of abductions of citizens and foreign nationals that have been blamed on security operatives.
This follows the abduction of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye and his colleague Obed Lutale in November 2024 in Nairobi’s Riverside area.
The duo would appear before the Makindye General Court Martial in Kampala on November 20 where they were formally charged.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR),82 cases of abductions have been reported since June 2024.
KNCHR maintained that 29 individuals remain unaccounted for since June.
This adds to 36 members of Uganda’s opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) arrested in Kisumu in July 2023 and deported to Uganda under terrorism charges, despite having entered Kenya legally.
Additionally, in October 2023, seven Turkish asylum seekers were abducted in Nairobi, with four forcibly returned to Turkey just days later.
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