The abduction of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye in Nairobi is a chilling demonstration of the Kenyan government’s collusion with autocratic leaders. Besigye was lifted by Uganda intelligence officers in the evening of 16 November at an apartment building in the plush Riverside suburb of Nairobi. Then he was arraigned, four days later, in front of a military court in Kampala on weapons charges, without having access to lawyers. President William Ruto’s office in Nairobi has denied involvement but the lack of condemnation of a transnational rendition by Ugandan security officers makes it almost inconceivable that their Kenyan counterparts did not know what was going on. 

That will have done Ruto’s relationship with his counterpart Yoweri Museveni no harm. Nor is it the first time that Kenya has allowed a foreign government to repatriate its nationals without a formal arrest or extradition process. In October, four Turkish refugees were kidnapped in Nairobi, with the incident reported by a British national who was also abducted but later released after showing his passport to his captors. The refugees were repatriated at the request of the Turkish government, the Kenyan foreign ministry later confirmed. These cases and the kidnappings of dozens of Kenyan Generation Z activists have been taken up with State House by United States and European diplomats, apparently to little effect.