Many of his friends and family members including his sister were abducted by the rebels to serve as slaves, soldiers and labourers.

[1][6] Opiyo was a member of the team of experts to the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and Association until 2017.

[1] He is also the board chairman of action aid Uganda,[7] a member of the human rights advisory board benetech, a silicon valley human rights and tech company based in palo Alto in California and African middle eastern leadership project (AMEL), a Washington DC–based think and action group.

[8] In December 2020 Opiyo was arrested along with several other lawyers working for Bobi Wine, who was then running against Yoweri Museveni in the Ugandan presidential elections.

[9][10] In September, 2021, the Ugandan government dropped the charges after failing to present enough evidence before a court-appointed deadline.