Kenyan activist deported after detention in Tanzania
What you need to know:
- Mwangi’s disappearance had sparked widespread concern across Kenya and beyond
Nairobi/Dar es Salaam. Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has been deported from Tanzania after being detained in Dar es Salaam.
Kenya’s government confirmed Mwangi’s release yesterday morning through a spokesperson for Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
Sources told Nation that Mwangi was deported by road to the coastal border.
Mwangi’s disappearance had sparked widespread concern across Kenya and beyond, with his family, civil society and human rights groups staging protests and demanding his release.
On Wednesday, the Kenyan government formally protested his detention, accusing Tanzanian authorities of denying consular access despite repeated requests.
In a diplomatic note issued by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs and shared by Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, Nairobi expressed concern over Mwangi’s health, wellbeing and the lack of transparency around his detention.
“The Ministry notes that despite several requests, officials of the Government of Kenya have been denied consular access and information regarding Mr Mwangi,” the note stated. It warned that such action contravenes the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which grants accredited diplomats access to nationals detained in foreign countries.
Although Tanzanian authorities had reportedly allowed a Kenyan consular officer to briefly see Mwangi at a Dar es Salaam police station, he was later moved to an undisclosed location.
Mwangi had travelled to Tanzania earlier in the week to show solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who appeared in court on Monday. Despite being allowed entry into the country, Mwangi was not permitted to attend the hearing.
The activist vanished a day after posting on social media that plainclothes officers had been stationed outside his hotel room in Dar es Salaam. It is not uncommon for Tanzanian police to inspect foreign visitors’ travel documents, but the intent of that encounter remains unclear.
He was arrested alongside his Ugandan counterpart Agatha Atuhaire.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressed the controversy, stating that the government would not tolerate interference from foreign activists.
“We have started seeing a trend where some activists from neighbouring countries are trying to meddle in our affairs. If they have been silenced in their own countries, they should not come here to disturb our peace,” she said.
Defending the President’s remarks, Kenya’s Foreign Minister Mudavadi told Citizen TV on Tuesday night that “there is some truth” in her concerns, suggesting Kenya’s free speech environment sometimes leads to “utterances lacking in integrity”.
