Activists on social media mainly X formerly Twitter are up in arms as they demand for the release of Louis Ninsiima an LDC student who was allegedly kidnapped on Sunday, November 1st, 2026.
According to Praise Opoloje Aloikin, a close friend to Ninsiima, Ninsiima a 25 year old student at LDC was picked from his mother’s workplace along Kiyembe lane in Kikuubo as the armed men were looking for her.
“Friendship is now a crime in Uganda, give me my friend back. You cannot love yourself, therefore, you cannot lie to us that you can love this country. It explains your use of torture and abductions,” Aloikin wrote on her X account.
Godber Tumushabe, an activist and CSO leader said that abductions of innocent young people by armed gunmen working for people who hold positions of authority meant to protect people is the very definition of cowardice.
“Ugandans, wherever you are, whatever you are, we simply have to end this madness,” he stated.
Elias Nalukoola Luyimbaazi, a Member of Parliament for Kawempe North noted that friendship is not a crime, adding that information available to them indicates that Ninsiima is being held and interrogated over his association and friendship with fellow activist Aloikin.
“Let it be known clearly: friendship is not a criminal offense under the laws of Uganda. Depriving a citizen of their liberty without due process, keeping them in unacknowledged safe houses, and operating outside the established legal frameworks is a gross violation of Article 23 of the Constitution of Uganda,” Nalukoola noted.
Agather Atuhaire, an activist with Agora Discourse said that when she recently saw Gen Salim Saleh talking about dialogue she thought some members of the first firmly still had some humanity in them but a few hours later abductions had resumed.
“When I saw in papers that some people were to engage in dialogue, I thought that perhaps they have started to see the unsustainability and the counter productivity of these atrocities and the terror they are unleashing on Ugandans. But wapi. Instead of starting by releasing those arbitrarily detained, allowing medical care for those they have tortured, etc, they are continuing to abduct more, torture more, imprison more,” Atuhaire said.
As of Monday, November 2nd, 2026, the police or any security organ hadn’t come out yet to confirm the arrest of Ninsiima but from onlookers in Kikuubo, Ninsiima was picked up by armed men.
According to several activists, Ninsiima’s only known offence is being friends with Aloikin. On September 26th, when Aloikin was taken from Namungoona Police Station by Defence Intelligence officers after a disputed carpet complaint lured her there. Ninsiima tried to intervene, and was allegedly put at gunpoint, read out the vehicle registration, UA875AC, and immediately alerted the public.
Aloikin, a lawyer and winner of the EU’s 2025 Human Rights Defenders Award, was later charged with using a SIM registered in someone else’s name allegedly her Mum’s, but she denied it, and got bail on October 14th, 2026.
