NAIROBI — Boniface Mwangi, a well-known Kenyan activist, sat in a wheelchair, visibly shaken. Beside him, Ugandan lawyer and journalist Agatha Atuhaire held back tears. The two had just returned from what they described as “hell” in Tanzania.
At a press conference in Nairobi on Monday, they shared harrowing accounts of arrest, beatings, and sexual violence allegedly carried out by Tanzanian security forces.
“They tortured us, stripped us, filmed us — and then dumped us at the border,” Mwangi said. “We went through hell.”
The two had travelled to Dar es Salaam on 18 May to observe the trial of Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu. They say they declared their intentions openly at the airport. But things soon took a dark turn.
Mwangi, who had checked into a hotel in the city, received a midnight call from reception. Armed men in civilian clothes, claiming to be police, were at his door.
“I refused to open. It was past midnight. I didn’t know who they really were,” he told reporters.
Tanzanian lawyers urged him to cooperate. But Mwangi feared for his safety and stayed put.
Dragged from breakfast table
The next morning, as he sat for breakfast with fellow activists, Mwangi was approached by about a dozen officers—some in uniform, others in plain clothes.
“They were waiting by the bathroom door. I ran back to my table screaming, so people would see what was happening,” he recalled.
According to Mwangi, the officers insisted he was not under arrest but needed for questioning. He was taken to immigration offices, where he was interrogated, fingerprinted, and asked to surrender his phone and laptop.
His colleague Atuhaire had earlier helped him store his belongings. CCTV footage reportedly showed her entering and leaving Mwangi’s room. That, they believe, led to her arrest.
“They said I was hiding something. They were furious,” Atuhaire said.
Both were held without access to lawyers. By that evening, Mwangi was told by Kenya’s ambassador to Tanzania that he would be released and deported. But what followed was far from a routine deportation.
Allegations of sexual violence and humiliation
Mwangi described being beaten, tied up, and suspended upside down. He says officers shoved unknown objects into his body while filming him. He was forced to chant praises for Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu.
“They played loud music to drown our screams,” he said.
In a separate room, Atuhaire says she endured the same.
“They stripped me. Tied me up. And violated me,” she said. “I was terrified. But I kept thinking—if we die, at least the world will know.”
She added, “What saved us was the outrage on social media. East Africans refused to be silent.”
Atuhaire also accused some Tanzanian officials of spreading false claims about their intentions.
“They said the West sent us. They mocked us in Parliament. But we were only there to observe a trial,” she said.
The activists say their treatment highlights a broader crackdown on dissent in Tanzania under President Suluhu. They accused the hotel of letting security forces access their rooms and expressed anger that their lawyers were blocked from helping them.
Silence from their governments
Both Mwangi and Atuhaire expressed disappointment in their governments.
“Kenya made a statement—but it was too late. Uganda said nothing. My own country didn’t care,” Atuhaire said.
She suspects some Ugandan officials even welcomed her detention.
On 22 May, Mwangi was dropped at the Horohoro border near Kenya’s coast. He wasn’t formally deported—just abandoned, he says, with cash stuffed into his pocket.
Atuhaire was dumped at Mutukula on the Uganda-Tanzania border the next day.
“They told us to strip and shower before they released us,” she said. “I didn’t even know where I was when they left me.”
Calls for justice
The two say they won’t rest until justice is served.
“We need an investigation. Real justice—not just sympathy,” Mwangi said. “Otherwise, this will keep happening to others.”
Human rights groups across East Africa are now calling for independent inquiries into their treatment. Legal experts say the reported actions, if proven, would violate international law and basic human dignity.
The Tanzanian government has yet to issue a formal response.
Meanwhile, Atuhaire said the experience opened her eyes to the plight of local Tanzanians.
“We were not the only victims,” she said. “What they did to us—they’re doing to others. Only this time, the world was watching.
