Kenya: 'Our Ugandan Captors Beat Us, Then Gave Us Painkillers' - Freed Kenyan Activists

Nairobi — Two Kenyan activists detained in Uganda for more than a month have revealed chilling details of their ordeal, saying they were beaten during interrogations and handed painkillers between interrogation sessions.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo recounted how they were blindfolded, chained, and repeatedly assaulted by Ugandan security officers who accused them of working with opposition leader Bobi Wine to incite unrest.

"I was tortured on the second day during interrogation," Njagi said.

"They removed me from the cell, blindfolded me, and chained me to a chair. One officer would hit me with blows while the other asked questions -- about who was funding our movement and what we had come to Uganda to do."

After the beatings, Njagi said, their captors handed them paracetamol to "heal quietly" during their 38-day confinement.

"They gave us painkillers, paracetamols. That's all we got so that we could heal quietly," he said, adding that they were denied basic hygiene and forced to use a paint tin as a toilet.

Oyoo described their detention as a total lockdown inside a "safe house", where they were cut off from sunlight, fresh air, and the outside world.

"It was lock-in -- no seeing out, no sun, no fresh air. It was a mess," Oyoo said.

The two activists were eventually moved under guard to Busia after two weeks in isolation, without being told where they were being taken.

Call for accountability

Their detention sparked regional outcry, with human rights groups demanding accountability for what they termed enforced disappearance and torture.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had branded the pair were "experts in organizing riots," alleging links to Bobi Wine's opposition movement.

"We have good intelligence and we arrested the two Kenyans because they are experts in riots," Museveni said during a talk show on Uganda's state broadcaster UBC.

Njagi and Oyoo were released on November 7, following 38 days in military custody, after sustained diplomatic pressure from the Kenyan government and regional rights organizations.

A joint statement by VOCAL Africa, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), and Amnesty International Kenya condemned the activists' torture and demanded a transparent investigation.

"Enforced disappearances and torture have no place in our region. We demand accountability from Ugandan authorities," the groups said.

Read the original article on Capital FM.