The abduction of Kizza Besigye shouldn’t surprise anybody because that’s what Kenya is known for.
It is not a place l would advise any foreign political dissident to visit or seek asylum because the probability that they’ll hand you back to your persecutors is always very high. And in case they don’t, they’ll lock you up themselves in one of the jails.
When Amin took power after overthrowing Milton Obote, Miriam Obote (Obote’s wife) and children fled to Kenya by hiding in a taxi, only for Kenyatta’s government to deport her back to Uganda the following day.
Meanwhile Obote who had made a stopover in Nairobi and booked himself into the Panafric Hotel was placed under constant surveillance by the GSU and all the telephone lines from the hotel disconnected to prevent him from making calls. Obote finally left Kenya for Dar after Nyerere advised him that it was not a safe country. Most political leaders facing persecution always found a home in Dar where Nyerere was welcoming.
Former Ugandan president Godfrey Binaisa was abducted in front of his family in Nairobi and put on a plane to London. The only thing he had on him when he arrived in the wintery London were the clothes on his body.
The Likes of John Garang were locked up at Kamiti for antagonising Khartoum. Most SPLM only managed to live in Nairobi because the West which was supporting their war against Khartoum negotiated for them to stay
In 2021 they abducted Nnamdi Kanu, Biafra separatist leader and returned him to Nigeria.
In 2016 they abducted Riek Machar’s spokesman James Gatdet Dak and deported him back to South Sudan despite the danger he was likely to face there . Human rights groups and the United Nations called the move a breach of international law.
The list is endless.
For a normal refugee heading to Kakuma it’s fine but not an influential political dissident.
