Latest news with #Karua
First Post
26-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Kenya's Former Justice Minister Martha Karua Deported From Tanzania Firstpost Africa
Kenya's Former Justice Minister Martha Karua Deported From Tanzania | Firstpost Africa | N18G Kenya's Former Justice Minister Martha Karua Deported From Tanzania | Firstpost Africa | N18G Kenyan lawyer and presidential candidate Martha Karua was deported from Tanzania. She was there to defend opposition leader Tindu Lissu, who is facing treason charges and was due to face a trial on Monday. The vocal critic of the alleged backsliding democracy in eastern Africa, Karua said she was stopped at the Dar es Salaam airport with her group and was put on a flight out the same day. The Kenyan leader lashed out at the Tanzanian government, accusing President Samia Suluhu Hassan's party of subverting the law to lock up the main contenders ahead of the October election. She also represents Ugandan leader Kizza Besigye, facing treason charges. Karua is preparing to run for the 2027 Kenyan presidential election. She faces competition from several opponents, who hope to take on President William Ruto. See More
New Indian Express
21-05-2025
- New Indian Express
Man posing as Jharkhand doctor gets 30 months jail term
ROURKELA: The court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Sharmistha Padhi on Monday sentenced a 53-year-old man to 30 months of imprisonment for impersonating a doctor. A habitual offender, Padmanava Mukhi Karua was caught serving in Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) by stealing the identity of a Jharkhand doctor. Impersonating as Dr Ramesh Chandra Jha of adjacent Jharkhand, Karua had got contractual appointment in the dialysis unit of RGH through an outsourcing agency on December 26, 2023. His fake identity got revealed accidentally in June 2024. A resident of Rourkela city, Karua has studied up to Class XII. According to police, Karua had availed a loan of about Rs 16.5 lakh from a private non-banking financial company by forging the documents of Dr Jha. However, he had failed to change the actual phone number of Dr Jha. The authorities of the finance company called Dr Jha's number and came to know about the fraud. Subsequently, a complaint was filed in RN Pali police station. After his arrest, Karua revealed his original identity and confessed to his crime.
eNCA
19-05-2025
- Politics
- eNCA
Tanzania opposition leader defiant at treason trial
DAR ES SALAAM - Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu vowed to keep fighting on Monday as he appeared in court on a treason charge that carries a potential death penalty. Rights activists from neighbouring Kenya were detained at the airport as they attempted to attend the trial, which they say is another sign democracy is eroding in several East African nations. An opposition leader is also on trial for treason in neighbouring Uganda, while opposition movements face mounting pressure across multiple countries. IN PICS | Inside Magudumana's court bids since arrest in Tanzania In Tanzania, a defiant Lissu was cheered by supporters as he entered the courtroom on Monday, surrounded by a heavy police presence. Lissu's Chadema party has been disqualified from presidential and legislative elections due in October after demanding electoral reforms. AFP | ERICKY BONIPHACE "We will be fine... Don't worry at all," he told supporters, sporting a "No Reforms, No Elections" T-shirt and brandishing a proposed draft of a new constitution. Chadema accuses the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning to the repressive policies of the recent past. Lissu's case was adjourned to 2 June, his lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala told reporters, as the prosecution said investigations were ongoing. A group of Kenyan rights defenders, including a former chief justice, were detained at the airport in Dar es Salaam as they travelled to observe the trial. The Tanzanian president later said foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in the country's affairs and urged security organs "not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here". - Regional concerns - Kenyan presidential candidate Martha Karua, a former justice minister, was also detained and deported on Sunday as she attempted to attend the trial. Karua said it showed Tanzania's ruling party was "not keen on according Tundu Lissu a fair trial". A Kenyan government spokesman said: "We cannot question because it is the decision of the Tanzanian government." Opposition movements face pressure across the region. Karua also serves as lawyer for Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was kidnapped in Kenya in November and taken back to his home country for trial. Uganda is due to hold elections in January. There is also concern about the political situation in Kenya, long considered a bastion of stability in the region. President William Ruto's popularity has been undermined by tax rises and corruption that sparked mass protests last year and were followed by a spate of abductions and political violence targeting his critics. When Ruto's former deputy launched a new political party in Nairobi last week, unidentified attackers stormed the meeting. Kenya is in "total disarray", Karua told AFP in an interview earlier this month. "It's as if our constitution has been suspended. We have abductions, arbitrary arrests... extrajudicial killings... And the police and authorities fail to take responsibility," she said. Karua said Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were "collaborating" in their "total erosion of democratic principles". AFP | SIMON MAINA "All these countries now have become dangerous, not just to others but to their own nationals. I tie this to the forthcoming elections," she said. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's leading opposition party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, was banned from any political activity last week, ahead of elections due by June 2026. South Sudan has repeatedly delayed holding its first elections and President Salva Kiir has placed his long-time rival, First Vice-President Riek Machar, under house arrest. Rwandan President Paul Kagame last year won re-election with more than 99 percent of the vote, amid long-running accusations of repression targeting the opposition.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tanzanian opposition leader makes defiant appearance at treason trial
The leader of Tanzania's main opposition party has appeared in court at a hearing in an ongoing trial on charges of treason, in which he potentially faces the death penalty. Tundu Lissu issued a message of defiance to supporters on Monday as he took his place in the dock at Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in the capital, Dar-es-Salaam. The trial has added to rising concerns across East Africa about threats to democracy. Lissu entered the courtroom with his fist raised in the air as supporters chanted, 'No reforms, no election', according to a video of the courtroom shared by his Chadema party on X. 'We will be fine. … Don't worry at all,' Lissu said as he addressed supporters. The opposition leader, who came second in the 2020 presidential election, insisted on attending the proceedings in person after being forced to appear via videolink from prison for an earlier hearing on April 24. Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack, was charged with treason last month over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt presidential and legislative elections scheduled for October. His Chadema party has been disqualified from this year's polls after demanding changes to an electoral process that it said favours the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, which has been in power since the country's independence from British rule in 1961. A series of high-profile arrests has highlighted the rights record of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who plans to seek re-election in October. She has insisted that the government is committed to respecting human rights. However, several Kenyan rights activists, including a former justice minister, said they were denied entry to Tanzania as they tried to travel to attend Lissu's trial. The former minister, Martha Karua, a prominent lawyer and opposition politician, and former Supreme Court President Willy Mutunga were among those detained when they landed at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar-es-Salaam, they said on X. Tanzania's immigration spokesperson Paul Mselle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 'Today was going to be a big day, and we went out there in solidarity,' Karua told the Kenyan broadcaster NTV on Monday after she was denied entry and sent back to Nairobi. 'The state cannot be used as a personal tool. You cannot deport people whom you don't like, who are not aligned to your views.' Mutunga and rights activist Hussein Khalid were being held in an interrogation room at Julius Nyerere airport on Monday and were expected to be deported, Khalid said on X. Karua said last month that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were 'collaborating' in their 'total erosion of democratic principles' amid rising concerns regarding democracy across East Africa. Ethiopia's leading opposition party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, was banned from any political activity last week, before elections due by June 2026 at the latest. South Sudan has repeatedly delayed holding its first national elections, and President Salva Kiir has placed longtime rival First Vice President Riek Machar under house arrest. Rwandan President Paul Kagame last year won re-election with more than 99 percent of the vote amid long-running accusations of repression targeting the opposition.
Saudi Gazette
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Kenya's ex-justice minister 'deported' from Tanzania
NAIROBI — Leading Kenyan lawyer and the country's former Justice Minister Martha Karua says she has been deported from Tanzania to prevent her from attending the court case of opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Two colleagues accompanying her were also reportedly detained and deported after flying in from neighboring Kenya. Former Kenyan chief justice Willy Mutunga and other prominent rights activists who later traveled there over Lissu's case said they were stopped and held at the airport. Tanzanian authorities have not yet commented. Lissu, who is the leader of Tanzania's main opposition Chadema party, is appearing in court on Monday after being charged with treason last month. Kenya's top foreign affairs official Korir Sing'oei has "strongly urged" the Tanzanian authorities to release Mutunga and his delegation. Karua is a respected human rights advocate, and a vocal critic of what she calls "democratic backsliding" in East Africa. She has also been representing Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye, who was kidnapped in Kenya last year and taken back to his home country to face treason charges. Like Lissu, he denies the charges, arguing that they are politically motivated. Karua served as Kenya's justice minister from 2005 to 2009, and was the running-mate of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in his failed presidential bid in elections in 2022. She launched her own opposition party, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), earlier this year. The PLP said that she — along with fellow Kenyan lawyer Gloria Kimani and human rights campaigner Lynn Ngugi — were subjected to "hours of unwarranted interrogation", before being deported. Condemning the incident, Chadema general secretary John Mnyika said: "The solution to hiding the shame of a false treason case is not to detain foreign lawyers, but to drop the case altogether." The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition said it was shocked by what it called the "arbitrary arrests", as Karua had been allowed into Tanzania to observe proceedings when Lissu appeared in court on 15 April. The former Kenyan chief justice had traveled alongside lawyer Hussein Khalid and Hanifa Adan, a prominent organizer of the youth-led Gen Z protests last year. Khalid posted on X a clip of the three of them at the Dar es Salam airport saying they had been "stopped" and their passports taken. He said their trip was "in solidarity with Tanzanian lawyers and human rights defenders". Ms Adan said: "We've been detained at Julius Nyerere International Airport and we're not being told why. This is utterly ridiculous and petty. It's 3am and it's cold here... We all traveled in solidarity with Lissu who has a mention in court today." Another activist, Boniface Mwangi, said that armed men claiming to be police officers showed up at his hotel room in Dar es Salaam on Sunday night. He said they left and moved to the hotel lobby after he refused to open the door and demanded that they identify themselves. "My bags are packed, and I'm ready to go with those people when the Tanzanian lawyers who are following up on this matter arrive. For now, l will stay put." Human rights groups have been increasingly concerned about a crackdown on the opposition in Tanzania ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections due in October. Lissu cannot seek bail because he has been charged with treason, a crime for which the maximum sentence is death. He survived an assassination attempt in 2017 after being shot 16 times. The opposition leader was arrested in April after he held a rally under under the slogan "No Reforms, No Election". He is demanding sweeping changes, saying Tanzania's current laws do not allow for free and fair elections. The government denies the allegation. Since his arrest, his Chadema party has been barred from contesting the October poll after it refused to to comply with the electoral commission's requirement to sign a code of conduct. The document requires parties and their supporters to "behave well", and to "maintain peace and harmony" during the elections. Chadema sees the code of conduct as a ploy to contain the opposition, and for state repression to continue. The CCM party, which has governed Tanzania since 1977, is expected to retain power following the latest developments. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to be its presidential candidate. She was widely praised for giving Tanzanians greater political freedom when she took office in 2021 following the death of the incumbent, John Magufuli. Her critics say Tanzania is once again seeing the repression that characterized Magufuli's rule. The government denies the allegation. — BBC
