After the abduction of a senior Standard Group last month, the public outrage that followed should have made those behind the abductions to slow down. But they haven't.
Two human rights activists have been abducted and tortured in the past week. Collins Otieno was abducted on Wednesday last week in Nairobi. He was tortured and later released on Saturday. Mulinge Muteti was abducted in Athi River last week and later abandoned in Lukenya. Both were disappeared after attending protests over the detention of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye. In Lamu, Mohamed Muse was abducted two weeks ago by people his family claim were security officers.
These continuous, terrifying incidents reveal a horrifying trajectory where extrajudicial abductions, forced disappearances, and physical torture have become a normalised. Why would citizens exercising their fundamental constitutional rights to assemble, to protest, and to speak freely be subjected to such cruelty? Article 37 and Article 33 explicitly protect these actions. Subjecting activists to beatings and psychological terror is a direct assault on human dignity and the rule of law.
Why would a Kenyan citizen be brutalised for agitating against the detention of a Ugandan opposition leader? Given the high-profile abduction of Besigye in Nairobi in late 2024 by Ugandan authorities reportedly with the help of their Kenyan counterparts, it is possible that Uganda has a hand in the current abductions, perhaps with the full knowledge and consent of our government. Indeed, Mr Otieno has said his abductors demanded to know "which Ugandans were funding the protests" hinting at Uganda's involvement.
If that is the case, our national sovereignty has been compromised. But if the crackdown is being carried out by local forces, it's merely a continuation of State-sanctioned assault on our Constitution and democracy.
Whatever the case, this war against civilians exercising their constitutional rights is totally unjustified. Violence will not stop the citizens from exercising their constitutional rights to hold demonstrations and to express themselves. If the history of our great country is anything to go by, it will only embolden them.
The State cannot claim constitutional legitimacy while tolerating the tactics of a police state. The government must put an end to abductions immediately, rein in the rogue actors, and uphold the rule of law.
