The case of the arrest of the Ugandan opposition leader, Kisa Bisigi, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and then deported him to Uganda for his trial, sparked widespread controversy locally and internationally.
A senior Kenyan official acknowledged, for the first time, that his country helped to kidnap Pisigi on its soil last November, prompting his lawyer to accuse Nairobi of having acted as a “rogue state” that exceeds the law.
In a television interview, the Kenyan Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Moussalia Modafadi, said that “Kenya cooperated with the Ugandan authorities” in this issue, despite the denial of the former Kenyan government for any role in the kidnapping.
Modafadi explained that Pisigi was not seeking to resort to Kenya, noting that relations with Uganda “must be managed with caution for the wider national interest.”
For its part, the Kenyan opposition and the lawyer that represents Besigi, Martha Karwa, expressed its strong dissatisfaction with Modafadi’s recognition, considering that the actions of Kenya and Uganda in this case are “completely outside the law” and described them as “the rogue states”.
Besigi, former Ugandan President Yurei Museveni, who has ruled the country for nearly 4 decades, has turned into political exhibitions and faced a trial for treason, which may reach the death penalty, in light of the approaching January elections in which Museini runs for a new term.
The Besigi trial was recently transferred from the Military Court to the Civil Court, after its hunger strike, despite the Ugandan parliament recently acknowledging a controversial law that allows the establishment of military courts to consider civilian cases, bypassing a previous decision by the Supreme Court.
Pisigi’s lawyers accused the judicial system of the frequent postponement of the sessions and depriving him of the opportunity to release on bail, raising fears of continuous legal violations.
In a broader context, human rights activists considered the kidnapping and trial of Besigi part of the decline in democracy in the East Africa, where the leader of the Tanzanian opposition, Tondo Leso, is also facing a trial for treason prior to the October elections.
Many foreign activists who tried to pursue opposition trials in the region have been arrested and deported, including Martha Karwa, who accused the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania of “cooperation in suppressing citizens and violating their rights.”
