A new U.S. State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices has revealed that Kenyan authorities had an active involvement in the abduction of Uganda’s Kizza Besigye despite Kenya’s initial denial.
The revelations were discovered in the report that delivered a scorching assessment of Kenya’s human rights record, accusing the government of facilitating transnational repression, committing widespread ill treatments during domestic protests, and undermining democratic freedoms.
According to the report, the human rights situation in Kenya worsened in 2024, primarily as a result of the broad criticism the government faced.
The primary conclusion of the study was that the Kenyan government was engaging in a troubling trend of cross-border cooperation with foreign governments in order to suppress political dissent. According to the report, Kenyan officials intentionally collaborated with other governments, particularly Uganda, to target refugees and opposition leaders.
‘’There were reports the government knowingly cooperated with other governments to facilitate their acts of transnational repression,’’ the report read in part.
The report gave an instance of the case where a registered Ugandan refugee living in Kenya was apprehended in Kisumu with 36 Ugandan members of a Ugandan opposition political group as part of a joint Kenyan-Ugandan security agency operation and forcibly returned to Uganda.
On Besigye’s apprehension, the US revealed that Kenya was well aware of the abduction and even coordinated closely with the Ugandan authorities to ensure it happened.
In November, Kenya’s Foreign Principal Secretary Sing’oei Korir responded to the allegations, saying there was no reason whatsoever for Kenya to be a party in his nabbing. However, the U.S. report revealed otherwise.
‘’On November 16, Kizza Besigye, leader of another Ugandan opposition party, was kidnapped by Ugandan agents while visiting Nairobi. Kenyan government officials claimed they were unaware of the abduction, but Ugandan authorities maintained it was a coordinated action,’’ the report continued.
Besigye was in Kenya for the book launch of PLP ‘s party leader, Martha Karua, but never made it to the event as he was apprehended on his way there. Since then, the opposition leader has been held in police custody, with the Ugandan authorities refusing to release him.
The report also delved into the recent cases of abductions in the country, Gen Z protests, and the state of refugees in the country.
For refugees, the report noted that the government has worked with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organisations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, or asylum seekers, as well as other persons of concern.
However, it noted that more has to be done to ensure that refugees are safe. There exists a system for protecting refugees, but the government’s backlog for refugee status determination continued to grow, leaving an estimated 212,000 asylum seekers without full legal protection.
