Kenya’s reputation as a haven for political exiles is coming under scrutiny as activists and opposition figures continue to disappear from its streets.
Development Diaries reports that South Sudanese anti-corruption activist Athorbey Al-Gaddhaffy-Dit Guet, popularly known as Gaddafi, was seized in Nairobi in early June by masked men, only to reappear days later in military detention in Juba.
The activist, who also held Kenyan citizenship and had spent years exposing corruption linked to South Sudan’s political elite, had repeatedly warned colleagues that he feared for his life because of his work.
It is understood that the men intercepted him outside a casino in Nairobi, forced him into a white vehicle, and disappeared into the city.
A growing pattern
The disappearance of Gaddafi fits into a pattern that has been unfolding across East Africa for years, with Nairobi increasingly appearing as the setting for operations that should never occur in a sovereign state governed by the rule of law.
In November 2024, veteran Ugandan opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye was similarly abducted from Nairobi and transported to Uganda. More than 580 days later, he remains in detention facing treason charges.
In fact, human rights organisations have documented multiple cases involving South Sudanese opposition figures, journalists, whistleblowers, and activists who sought safety in Kenya only to find themselves detained back home after mysterious disappearances.
What makes these incidents particularly alarming is that they are political operations targeting people because of what they say, expose, or represent.
Across the continent, governments have increasingly discovered that critics do not stop being inconvenient simply because they cross a border. Rather than allowing exiles to remain beyond their reach, some states now pursue them abroad through what experts describe as transnational repression.
Freedom House’s global monitoring of transnational repression has repeatedly highlighted African countries among those involved in such practices, with Kenya appearing frequently as the territory where operations are taking place.
When refuge becomes risk
For decades, Nairobi cultivated a reputation as a refuge for people fleeing political persecution across the region, as Ugandan opposition figures, South Sudanese activists, and journalists escaping repression all found temporary safety there.
Also, diplomats, international organisations, and civil society groups often pointed to Kenya as one of the few places in the region where political exiles could operate with relative freedom.
That reputation is now under pressure, because when prominent figures disappear from Nairobi and later emerge in detention facilities elsewhere, the city’s image as a sanctuary begins to look increasingly fragile.
What the law promises
Kenya’s constitution guarantees the right to liberty, security, due process, and protection from arbitrary detention. It requires that individuals arrested be informed of the reasons for their arrest and brought before a court within a specified period, establishing legal procedures for extradition and detention.
Kenya is also party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which protect individual freedoms and prohibit abuses of state power.
None of those protections appears to have functioned in the cases of Besigye or Gaddafi.
The silence of institutions
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of these cases is the absence of public accountability afterward.
Kenya’s National Intelligence Service is responsible for monitoring security threats within the country’s borders, including activities by foreign intelligence agencies. However, there has been no public explanation of what it knew, when it knew it, or whether it attempted to prevent the operations.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has the authority to investigate abduction as a criminal offence. Yet there has been no widely publicised investigation capable of answering basic questions about who carried out these operations and how they were able to do so.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for relations with neighbouring governments. Still, there have been no highly visible diplomatic protests corresponding to the seriousness of what occurred.
Beyond the headlines
The abductions of Gaddafi and Besigye raise fundamental questions about the strength of constitutional protections when politically connected interests are involved, the practical meaning of national sovereignty in situations where foreign security operatives can allegedly conduct operations inside another country’s borders, and the credibility of a government that presents itself as a refuge for exiles while offering no convincing explanation for the growing number of political dissidents disappearing from its streets.
More importantly, they demonstrate that the protection of rights ultimately depends on institutions that are willing and able to enforce them, and until Kenya provides clear answers about how these incidents occurred and what steps it is taking to prevent future cases, the question hanging over Nairobi will remain difficult to escape.
