Kenyan activist Bob Njagi has opened up about the harrowing conditions he and fellow activist Nicholas Oyoo endured during their 38-day detention in Uganda, revealing details about the infamous “fridge” where they were allegedly held.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Njagi confirmed that the so-called “fridge” — which Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had earlier acknowledged — was located inside a Special Forces Command (SFC) facility, a site he claimed is used to detain hundreds of Ugandans without trial.
Njagi described the ordeal as a “crime against humanity,” alleging that the operation was run under the direct command of General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and the Chief of Defence Forces, rather than through regular state institutions.
“The Special Forces Command Centre in Sarakasenyi is the training ground for the Presidential Security Team. They call themselves Next To None because they don’t take orders from the Judiciary, Parliament, or even the Executive,” Njagi said.
He further disclosed that during his detention, he saw over 150 Ugandans held in similar conditions, some reportedly imprisoned for more than a year without any court process.
“This is an armed militia operating under General Muhoozi. Many people are detained there unlawfully — that’s what they call the ‘fridge’,” he added.
Museveni’s Admission
Shortly after Njagi and Oyoo’s release, President Yoweri Museveni admitted in a televised interview with UBC that the two Kenyans had indeed been detained by Ugandan authorities and “kept in a fridge for some days.”
“With our good intelligence, we picked them up and they have been in the fridge for some days. Some Kenyan leaders called me asking that I either charge them or hand them back,” Museveni said during the broadcast.
He claimed the two were working with Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine), describing them as “experts in riots.”
Njagi and Oyoo were eventually released on the night of Friday, November 7, and handed over to Kenyan authorities at the Busia border, ending their 38-day ordeal after being abducted near Kampala on October 1.
Their release came despite repeated denials from Ugandan police and military officials, who initially claimed no knowledge of their arrest — even as multiple eyewitnesses recounted seeing the activists seized by armed men at a petrol station near Kampala.