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Ugandan opposition leader Col (Rtd) Dr. Kizza Besigye and political activist Hajj Obeid Lutale have filed a constitutional petition in the High Court of Kenya, accusing Kenyan authorities of colluding with Ugandan security forces to abduct and unlawfully extradite them from Nairobi in November 2024.
The explosive case, filed under Kenya’s Constitutional and Human Rights Division, accuses several Kenyan government officials, including the Cabinet Secretaries for Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Interior, as well as the Inspector General of Police and the Director of Immigration, of violating Kenya’s Constitution, territorial integrity, and international law by facilitating a cross-border operation that bypassed due extradition process.
According to court documents seen by ChimpReports , Besigye and Lutale allege that they were in Nairobi to attend a book launch at the invitation of Kenyan politician Martha Karua when they were seized by armed men claiming to be Kenyan police.
They say they were bundled into vehicles, driven to the Malaba border in the dead of night, and handed over to Ugandan authorities—all without being informed of any charges or being presented before a court in Kenya.
“This was not an arrest; it was an abduction conducted in the full knowledge of Kenyan authorities and in violation of the Extradition (Commonwealth Countries) Act,” the petitioners state.
Clandestine Operation and Military Detention
Besigye, a former Ugandan presidential candidate and vocal critic of President Museveni’s government, asserts that he and Lutale were later detained incommunicado at Makindye Military Barracks in Kampala.
There, they were denied access to lawyers and medical care and charged before a military tribunal with illegal possession of firearms allegedly found in Kenya.
Besigye, who has long advocated for democratic reform in Uganda, said in his affidavit that the Kenyan authorities did not follow proper procedure under Kenya’s extradition law, including seeking a magistrate’s warrant and obtaining clearance from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Instead, he argues, the Kenyan government either actively participated in or turned a blind eye to the illegal operation.
The petition references public statements by Ugandan officials—including Col. Rafael Mugisha, Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, and ICT Minister Chris Baryomunsi—who claimed the operation was a coordinated effort between Kenyan and Ugandan security forces.
“If I committed a crime on Kenyan soil, then I should have been charged in Kenya. But I was neither arrested nor charged in accordance with Kenyan law,” Besigye said.
Constitutional Violations
The petition invokes more than two dozen provisions of the Kenyan Constitution, including those protecting due process, personal liberty, freedom of movement, and the rule of law. It also references Articles 238, 239, and 241 on national security organs and territorial integrity.
Among the reliefs sought are declarations that:
• The arrest and transfer of the petitioners violated the Constitution;
• The extradition was illegal, unconstitutional, and void;
• Any security memorandum of understanding between Kenya and Uganda bypassing formal extradition channels is unconstitutional;
• All foreign nationals in Kenya are entitled to the protections of the Constitution.
The petitioners also seek punitive, exemplary, and general damages and call on the court to assert Kenya’s sovereignty and legal obligations.
Conflicting Accounts
While Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Korir Sing’oei, initially denied knowledge of Besigye’s arrest, Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi later contradicted this on national TV, confirming Kenya’s cooperation with Uganda.
“He came here, and there were issues, and he had to go,” Mudavadi reportedly said on Citizen TV on May 20, 2025.
Besigye’s legal team, led by James Njeri & Company Advocates, argues that such conflicting statements point to an “unlawful, opaque, and politically motivated” operation that threatens Kenya’s own rule of law and the rights of foreign nationals.
The case is likely to test the strength of Kenya’s constitutional safeguards and regional obligations under the East African Community protocols. No hearing date has been set.
