'Finya hao!' Senator Cherargei urges Uganda, Tanzania to crack whip on Kenyan activists

Speaking during a Sunday service at the PAG Church in Kapsabet town, Cherargei said that foreign countries should not tolerate people who use the name of human rights protection to interfere with and try to destroy the security of the countries they visit. 

“I want to warn our activists who are busybodies. Stop exporting your bad manners to other countries. Stop it. Uganda and Tanzania are sovereign countries,” said Cherargei.

He added that those who can be proven to do so deserve to be severely punished and repatriated back home.

The statements came a day after activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo returned to Kenya following 38 days of detention in Uganda. 

“We thank President Museveni for accepting to release Njagi and Oyoo. You can’t go to someone’s house to cause trouble.”

“I want to ask President Samia and Museveni, if you get any busy bodies, activists who want to destabilise the sovereignity of your country. Finya hao, warudishe nyumbani tuwamalizie,” added the Nandi legislator. 

Njagi and Oyoo had travelled to Kampala to support opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, when they went missing on October 1, 2025. Reports indicated that the two Kenyan nationals were abducted by armed men in Kira Municipality, Wakiso District, Uganda.

The two were freed on Saturday, November 8, and handed over to the Kenyan High Commission in Uganda.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs minister Musalia Mudavadi said the release followed a “sustained diplomatic engagement between Kenya and Uganda” where “both governments maintained open and constructive communication that has culminated in the safe release of our nationals.”

In a radio talk show on Saturday evening, Museveni confirmed that Njagi and Oyoo were in the custody of Ugandan security forces.

He accused the activists of working with his opponent Bobi Wine to cause riots in the neighbouring country.

“Here we have very good intelligence…we know them. We have got two Kenyans whom we arrested. They have been with us, I have their names…But I don’t remember them. They came, and they were working with Kyagulanyi’s group. They are experts in riots,” said Museveni.

Human rights defenders and civil society groups have been expressing concern about the safety of activists in the region. 

Njagi and Oyoo’s detention in Uganda came months after Kenya’s Boniface Mwangi and Uganda’s Agatha Atuhairwe were detained in Tanzania, where the head travelled to hear treason charges against opposition leader Tundu Lissu.