The High Court in Kampala has ordered Ugandan police to produce two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, dead or alive, in the next seven days.
They have been missing since they were abducted in Kampala two weeks ago, and it is suspected that they are being held at a military detention camp.
Confirming the news, Freedon Hive Uganda, a human rights activist group, revealed that the orders had been issued by Justice Peter Kinobe.
"Earlier today, we attended the habeas corpus hearing of Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo at the High Court Civil Division in Kampala," the statement read in part.
"Justice Peter Kinobe ordered the government to produce Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo dead or alive within seven days. The Honourable Judge expressed his commitment to upholding the constitutional rights of the two activists, who have been held in unlawful military detention for 14 days."
This ruling comes just over a week after two Ugandan advocates moved to the High Court seeking habeas corpus orders for the release of the two on October 6.
In the application, the advocates relayed that Njagi and Oyoo had allegedly been arrested on October 1 in Kaliro District, Eastern Uganda and were being held at a military detention facility in Mbuya, Kampala.
They also highlighted the Ugandan law, which provides that a person ought to be presented before a court of law within 48 hours of arrest and yet the activists had not seen the inside of a courtroom since their detention.
On October 6, the Ugandan National Police (UNP) denied reports linking them to the alleged abduction following five days of speculation.
“On the matter of the two Kenyan activists who disappeared in Uganda, I am not briefed by the police that we have them in our custody. So at the moment, I do not have any information to the effect that they are in police custody,” UNP Spokesperson ACP Kituuma Rusoke said during a State of Security press briefing.
“If I had any information on their whereabouts of the two activists, I would present it here without any reservation."
The two activists were allegedly abducted while attending a political campaign at a petrol station in Uganda, where they had gone for a meeting with the National Unity Platform Presidential candidate Bobi Wine, the popular Ugandan opposition leader.
