Tanzanian police arrest foreign activists supporting detained opposition leader

The Star

20-05-2025

Supporters of Tanzanian opposition leader and former presidential candidate of CHADEMA party Tundu Lissu, chant slogans as they gather outside the Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Emmanuel Herman/File Photo
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) -Tanzanian police have arrested prominent human rights activists from Kenya and Uganda who had travelled to Dar es Salaam to observe a hearing in the treason case against detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu, an advocacy group said.
Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire went to Tanzania to attend Lissu's first court appearance on Monday in a case that has spotlighted a growing crackdown on opponents of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The chief spokesperson for Tanzania's Immigration Services Department, Paul Mselle, said he was not aware of Mwangi and Atuhaire's arrests, but would look into it.
Spokespeople for the government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Mwangi and Atuhaire were being held at the central police station in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) said in a statement.
The statement said Mwangi was arrested on allegations of providing false information to gain entry into the country. It was not clear on what basis Atuhaire had been detained.
Mwangi, who helped lead anti-government protests last year in Kenya, posted on X on Monday that men claiming to be police officers had come to his hotel room and that he would go with them once his lawyers arrived.
Several other Kenyan human rights activists who had come to attend Monday's hearing, including a former justice minister, said in social media posts or interviews that they were denied entry to Tanzania.
President Hassan, who is seeking re-election in October, has said her government is committed to respecting human rights following a series of high-profile arrests of political opponents.
But in public remarks on Monday, she warned foreign activists against "invading and interfering in our affairs."
Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack and came second in the last presidential poll, had refused to participate in a hearing on April 24 because authorities conducted a virtual, rather than an in-person trial.
He was charged with treason last month over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt the elections.
His CHADEMA party has demanded changes to an electoral process they say favours the ruling party before they participate in the ballot.
He entered the court on Monday with his fist raised in the air as supporters chanted "No Reforms, No Election."
(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Aaron Ross and Aidan Lewis)