The Simba Jike (Lioness) Who Stood with Besigye When Ruto and Museveni Abducted Him from Nairobi. Happy birthday, Hon. Martha Wangari Karua (@MarthaKarua). On 16 November 2024, Dr Kizza Besigye came to Nairobi to attend the launch of your book. He was abducted from an apartment in Riverside and taken back to Kampala in chains. The regimes of William Ruto and Yoweri Museveni worked together to do it. A Kenyan capital became a hunting ground for a Ugandan dissident. The lioness did not stay in her den. You crossed into Uganda and went before a General Court Martial that had no lawful authority over a civilian. You stood there and demanded that justice be done, knowing the tribunal was not built to deliver it. Some tried to shut you out on technicalities about your right to appear. You did not shrink or blink. When the Supreme Court of Uganda finally declared that civilians cannot be tried by military courts, it vindicated you. Standing with Besigye was the latest chapter of a life spent standing where courage is scarce, yet most needed. You were a young advocate in the dark years of one-party rule in Kenya. You defended dissidents when defending them was itself treated as dissent. You were among the voices of Kenya's Second Liberation, and you helped pry open a political space that others had sealed shut. As Member of Parliament for Gichugu, you refused to trade principle for patronage. As Minister for Water, and later for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, you carried the reform agenda into the corridors of power. When those corridors became hostile to reform, you walked out of the Cabinet rather than stay and be complicit. When Tanzania put Tundu Lissu on trial, you went to Dar es Salaam to witness it and were turned back at the airport. You have never recognised borders when the cause is liberty. For you, East Africa is not merely a common market. It is a family. This is your continuum. The courtroom in Nairobi in the 1980s, the Parliament in Gichugu, the Cabinet office you left on principle, the airport in Dar es Salaam, and the court martial in Kampala are one road. It is the road of someone who believes that law must restrain power, not merely serve it, and that solidarity is not a slogan but a journey undertaken at one's own risk. Simba Jike, you have taught a generation of East African lawyers that the robe is not a costume. It is a commitment. You have taught us that when a comrade is abducted, you do not issue a statement and go home. You follow him into the lion's den, and you roar. On your 69th birthday, we celebrate your life, your courage, and your stubborn faith in justice. May you have many more years of health and strength. May you live to see Dr Besigye walk free. May you live to see the East Africa you have fought for, where no government can hunt its critics across a neighbour's border. Happy 69th birthday, Mama Simba.

This is how @EriasLukwago was smuggled into Hon. Justice David Matovu’s chambers. While we were in court waiting, Lukwago was taken through a back door straight to chambers!

……I am condemned to death if no rescue is made to get my situation addressed as advised by the consultants from Mulago. It's a death sentence. For me. And all I can say to Allah, if you can take me, my Lord, the God who created me, kindly take me without a lot of pain……

“The team(medical), they are advising me to keep in a well-ventilated place. Yet you know the conditions of the prisons. The prisons are not well ventilated. So in a nutshell your worship. I am sentenced to death…..