NAIROBI -A Ugandan human rights activist who was detained in Tanzania earlier this week has alleged that she was raped and tortured while in custody an accusation that has heightened diplomatic tensions and sparked calls for a regional investigation.
Agather Atuhaire, a journalist and executive director of the Uganda-based Agora Centre for Research, told the media she was assaulted by men in plain clothes during her detention. Her account, relayed in graphic detail, includes allegations of sexual violence, beatings, and incommunicado confinement.
“I was blindfolded, hit, stripped violently, and raped,” she said. “The pain was too much.”
She also showed reporters a scar on her wrist, saying it was from being tightly handcuffed. “I screamed so loudly they had to cover my mouth,” she added.
Atuhaire had travelled to Tanzania alongside Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi to show support for Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu, who appeared in court earlier this week on treason charges. Though the pair were allowed into the country, they were blocked from attending the hearing and detained shortly after arriving.
Neither the Tanzanian government nor its security agencies have issued a formal response to the allegations.
The two activists were reportedly held incommunicado for several days. They were later found separately abandoned near border towns in their respective home countries. Mwangi was located first on Thursday morning in northern Tanzania, disoriented and with visible injuries. Atuhaire was discovered hours later at the Uganda-Tanzania border.
In a social media post following his release, Mwangi wrote, “We had been tortured… forced to strip and crawl to clean off our own blood.” He also said he heard Atuhaire’s screams during their detention and claimed their captors had threatened him with forced circumcision.
“Any attempt to speak to each other was met with kicks and insults,” Mwangi said, adding that the people who detained them appeared to be receiving instructions from someone he believed was a state security official.
The backdrop to the activists’ arrest is a tightening political climate in Tanzania. On Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned foreign activists against interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
“We are starting to see a pattern of activists from this region imagining they can interfere,” she said during a speech in Swahili. “If their own countries cannot control them, we must not allow them to disrupt our peace.”
Suluhu’s remarks have drawn criticism from regional rights groups, who say they have created a hostile environment for cross-border activism in East Africa.
“This is a serious violation of regional and international human rights standards,” said Maria Mutua, a legal analyst with the East Africa Rights Alliance. “Torture, unlawful detention, and sexual violence cannot be justified under any circumstances not by national security concerns, not by political tensions.”
On Wednesday, Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had filed a formal protest with Tanzanian authorities over the arrest of Mwangi, accusing officials in Dar es Salaam of denying consular access despite repeated requests.
Uganda’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Fred Mwesigye, confirmed Atuhaire’s safe return. “She was warmly received by her family,” he said in a brief statement.
The allegations have sent shockwaves through human rights communities across East Africa. Activist groups in Kenya and Uganda have called for an independent investigation and are demanding accountability from Tanzanian authorities.
So far, Tanzanian officials have remained silent.
For Atuhaire and Mwangi, the scars both physical and emotional remain raw.
“We went there in peace,” said Mwangi in a follow-up message. “We were met with violence. But we will not be silenced.”
