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Nyanzi returns home after Kenyan ‘holiday’

By Amina Wako April 22nd, 2021 1 min read

After close to three months in exile in Nairobi, Stella Nyanzi, a Ugandan academic and political activist has returned home.

The former research fellow at Makerere University who also unsuccessfully vied for the Kampala Woman MP seat in January’s general elections confirmed her return on social media.

She’s described her stay in Kenya as a ‘holiday’.

“It is great to be back home in Uganda. Thank you, Kenya, for being good to my family! Every human being deserves a holiday far from the madding crowd,” she wrote on Facebook.

Nyanzi fled to Nairobi on January 30 and preferred to seek political asylum in Kenya, according to her lawyer.

“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,” she explained in an interview with Nairobi News.

She also claimed to have crossed the Uganda-Kenya border “in disguise” to avoid detection by security agents. She has been with her children “in a safe house” in Nairobi.

Nyanzi claimed her partner, David Musiri who doubles up as a member of Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform political outfit was abducted from his car with his brother.

“David was pushed into the boot of a private saloon car and driven off to an unmarked facility where he was tortured during interrogation. His genitals were squeezed so badly, his body was beaten and bruised, and nobody knew where he was for a couple of days,” she said.

Human Rights Watch reported several incidences of violence and human rights violations in connection with the election.