Ugandan academic and activist Stella Nyanzi is seeking political asylum in Kenya citing persecution by President Yoweri Museveni’s government.
The former research fellow at Makerere University and her three children arrived in Nairobi by bus on Saturday.
This was confirmed by her lawyer, Prof George Luchiri Wajackoyah, who said Nyanzi crossed the Uganda-Kenya border “in disguise” to avoid detection by security agents. Her children are also “in a safe house” in Nairobi.
Speaking to nation.africa, Nyanzi said she was forced to escape into Kenya after her partner was abducted by President Museveni’s regime.
“I am in Kenya because Ugandans in the opposition who have criticized the government of Yoweri Museveni are getting abducted every day from the streets, from their homes, from their beds. Ugandans are kidnapped from private cars and taken to detention facilities where they are tortured and interrogated about their next plans for the liberation,” she explained.
Adding: “The abductions and detentions of political actors were getting closer to me; my children have been targets of police trailing. I just left prison in February last year and I don’t want to go back.”
The academic scholar said she is happy to have made it out of Uganda alive.
“The fear of not knowing who will be taken next, my friends have been abducted, my partner has been abducted, I think I am fortunate that I got out when I could,” she said.
Nyanzi, who lost in her bid to become Kampala Woman MP in last month’s general election, said her plan now is to rest, re-strategize, learn about the system and return with the power to push for the emancipation of Uganda from the current regime which she described as authoritarian.
