NAIROBI, Oct 2, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two Kenyan activists were abducted by Ugandan security forces after attending a rally for opposition leader Bobi Wine, rights groups said Thursday.

Abductions of government critics and opposition figures have become common across east Africa, and rights groups allege authorities are failing to protect their own citizens and even working together against activists.

In May, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire say they were abducted and tortured by security forces in Tanzania.

There was little reaction from their respective governments, with the Kenyan government saying only that they had "engaged diplomatically" but never openly criticising the incident.

The latest victims were Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who were reportedly taken at a petrol station after joining Wine's campaign trail on Wednesday.

The head of Kenyan rights group VOCAL Africa, Hussein Khalid, told AFP they had been unable to reach the men, saying his group believed they were "taken by security officers".

"Their phones are off... I think they knew they were Kenyans," he said.

"The East Africa cross-border abductions are getting out of hand now. We have seen the same in Kenya, we have seen the same in Uganda, in Tanzania," Khalid said.

"It's worrying that the three states may be working together to suppress the freedoms in the region."

In an open letter to Uganda's acting High Commissioner to Kenya, Eunice Kigenyi, Amnesty International Kenya, the Law Society of Kenya and VOCAL Africa called for their release.

The letter said it was "yet another alarming case in a pattern of abductions and enforced disappearances" that exposed "the deepening crackdown on dissent in the region".

"These incidents demonstrate a systematic and coordinated assault on civil society, media and political opposition," it said.

Njagi has previously said he was also abducted by Kenyan security forces last year over his involvement in anti-government protests.

The rights groups also said his abduction in Uganda "signals the persistence of state-linked repression intended to silence those demanding justice and accountability".

A spokesperson for Kenya's interior ministry said secretary Kipchumba Murkomen had guaranteed any travelling Kenyan would be accounted for.

"It is the duty of the government to protect its citizens anywhere in the world," he said at a security event on Thursday.

Ugandan opposition leader Wine said the Kenyans were taken by "armed operatives" in a sign of the "continuing lawlessness by the rogue regime" of President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking to extend his 40-year rule in elections in January.

"The criminal regime apparently abducted them simply for associating with me and expressing solidarity with our cause," he said in a post on X.

Another Ugandan opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, was kidnapped in Kenya last year and smuggled back to Uganda to face trial for treason.

AFP contacted the Ugandan police as well as Kenya's foreign ministry for comment but did not receive an immediate response.