Latest news with #TunduLissu
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Democracy in East Africa is retreating. Here is how it can be saved
Last week, Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire was finally set free five days after she was detained by the Tanzanian police for unclear reasons. She was unceremoniously dumped at the Mutukula border crossing between the two countries. Details of Atuhaire's condition remain unclear, but a statement from the organisation she works with as well as Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, who was detained with her, alleged that she was tortured. He himself showed signs of physical abuse after he was also dumped at the Kenya-Tanzania border a day earlier. For East Africans, Atuhaire and Mwangi's ordeal has been a painful reminder of just how far democracy in the region has retreated. People organising to resist state excesses have been increasingly facing structural and physical violence with little space for redress. Mwangi and Atuhaire were among a small group of regional activists and political figures who flew into Tanzania to show solidarity with Tundu Lissu, the leader of the Tanzanian opposition. Lissu is facing several charges, the most grievous among them treason, for comments he allegedly made at a political rally. But Lissu is not alone in the region in facing reprisals for political action. In neighbouring Uganda, leader of the opposition Kizza Besigye is facing the same charges, based on the same idea that organising and leading opposition against an entrenched political power amounts to treason. Meanwhile, in Kenya, the aftermath of the 2024 anti-finance bill protests is haunting the country. In the absence of a well organised political opposition, which is stymied by frenetic deal-making and horse-trading, protesters and youth activists have become the country's unofficial political opposition. The youth have borne the brunt of political violence during last year's protests, which killed at least 82 people. Kidnappings and abductions of protesters spiked after the demonstrations, and activist groups alleged that some people remain unaccounted for despite President William Ruto's assertion to the contrary. In Burundi, people continue to live under the shadow of police excesses and in fear of the possibility of war with its expansionist neighbours. In Rwanda, several opposition figures who tried to run against President Paul Kagame were jailed on various charges. The neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo is perennially caught between war and political crisis. So how did we get to this state of affairs? The simplest answer is that we allowed ourselves to conflate elections with democracy, and the malicious intentions of those who wield power took advantage of that faith. The reality of building robust democratic systems is far more complicated than lining up to vote every four or five years, and real democracy requires round the clock vigilance. A meaningful democracy requires robust local government, transparent political parties as well as institutional accountability and participation, all of which have been on the retreat in the region in the past two decades. Power has remained highly centralised in the executive, enabled by the capitulation of legislatures and the 'naomba serekali' ('I am requesting of the government') approach to politics. Parliaments are empowered by the legitimacy of a popular vote, but they repeatedly submit to the executive. Proof of this can be easily found in the experience of women trying to run for office in the region. As outlined in a 2018 volume on the Kenyan election that I co-edited, Where Women Are: Gender and the 2017 Kenyan General Election, the weakness begins within political parties, in which candidates must kowtow to a kingpin to gain permission to appear on the ballot. Those who do not are often locked out from competitive electoral cycles. As a result, save for constitutional quotas, women's participation in electoral politics has declined – a canary in the coalmine of shrinking democratic space. Meanwhile, parties have mastered the art of managing gender optics as a substitute for real change, reducing debates about democracy to the periodic performance of voting. Thus, Samia Suluhu's presidency in Tanzania is not a sign of improving democracy but rather that of a political machine that picked the least contentious candidate who would allow the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, to continue managing the country. Similarly, the dominance of women in Rwanda's parliament is not in itself indicative of progress for women but of the ability of the ruling party to select candidates who are less likely to push back. Once these candidates are laundered through the political party machine, they enter the legislature more beholden to their political kingpin than to voters. And this is the case whether the kingpin is in government or in the opposition. In Kenya, opposition candidates like Edwin Sifuna, who vociferously defended the rights of protesters during the June 2024 protests, have become tongue-tied in 2025 because their party kingpin has since struck a deal with Ruto and blind obeisance is the only guaranteed pathway to power in this system. In Uganda, politicians are bought off with state cars and loans, and in Tanzania, they are silenced by arrests, detentions and disappearances of critics of the state. The net effect is that elections become a performance whose actual impact diminishes rapidly over time. A quick scan of global politics will affirm that this is not a uniquely East African problem. The same crisis is taking shape in the United States, particularly after the evisceration of the Republican Party by Tea Party politics and of the Democratic Party by careerist politicians. But the events of the last week show that for East Africa, an extra layer of risk exists because of the unquestioning and blind loyalty of security services to the whims of the state – something the current US administration seeks to build into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The long-term solution to this state of affairs is for ordinary people to become more engaged in localised democratic practices, changing the quality of people who rise up the ranks in politics. Of course, this can be difficult when people are merely trying to survive a hostile political and economic climate, but in the long term, it creates new entry points for civic engagement. Democracy is strengthened when more people participate in the governance of civic institutions like schools, hospitals, trade unions, cooperatives, neighbourhood associations, and even sports and social clubs – in processes that they can immediately connect to their quality of life. Elections then become the culmination of four or five years of regular exercises of democracy, not a separate process that floats above the reality of people's lives. In parallel, the onus is on the legislators of East Africa to find their teeth and their purpose. Their job is not political survival or the pursuit of political careers. Their job is to defend the people who elected them, to rein in the excesses of the executive and to defend the integrity of the constitution. Meanwhile, we, the people, should all heed the call of Nigerian public intellectual Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem: 'Don't agonise, organise,' and seek to rebuild democracy in East Africa from the ground up. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Sexually assaulted and smeared in excrement: Uganda activist details torture in Tanzania
Stripped naked, beaten until she could no longer walk, sexually assaulted and covered in excrement: award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire told AFP of the torture she suffered at the hands of security forces in Tanzania this week. Atuhaire, who won an International Women of Courage Award from the United States last year, was arrested on Monday in Tanzania's business hub Dar es Salaam. She had travelled there to support opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is on trial for treason, facing a potential death penalty, ahead of elections in October. Atuhaire was abandoned early Friday by Tanzanian agents near the Ugandan border after a brutal ordeal, she said. "What happened in Tanzania stays in Tanzania," she said she was told. "We have videos of you." Atuhaire was arrested along with Boniface Mwangi, a well-known rights activist from Kenya who also wanted to attend the trial. Police told her: "Whites are sending you to destabilise our country," she told AFP in an interview in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Friday. After being interrogated, Atuhaire and Mwangi were blindfolded and driven to an unknown location. There, they took Mwangi out of the car and began beating him. "He was screaming," said Atuhaire, adding that the agents had played gospel songs on the car radio, apparently trying to muffle the sound. She says she was stripped naked, her hands cuffed to her ankles. She has injuries on her forearms and legs. One of the Tanzanian officers then hit the soles of her feet "with all his might", while another inserted an object into her anus, she said. "I had never known pain like that existed," she said. "I don't remember which pain was worse," she added. "After that beating, I scream, I scream." Then they smeared her body with excrement, she said. The whole scene was filmed -- "to humiliate, instil fear but also silence you", she said. "They are used to sexual abuse being something a victim is ashamed of. (But) I am not that victim... I am not the one who should be ashamed. You are the one who is committing a heinous crime, so you are the one who should be ashamed," Atuhaire said. The US State Department said Saturday it was "deeply concerned" about the reports of mistreatment of Atuhaire and Mwangi, calling for "an immediate and full investigation". Amnesty International also said the "torture and forcible deportation" of Mwangi and Atuhaire must be "urgently investigated". AFP attempted to reach the Tanzanian government for comment, but there was no immediate response. - 'Pain was unimaginable' - Atuhaire, a lawyer and journalist, is a fierce critic of the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years. Her work in exposing corruption as head of the Agora Centre for Research has earned her international recognition. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said Monday foreign activists were attempting to "intrude and interfere" in the country's affairs. She urged the security services "not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here". Rights groups accuse Hassan of a brutal crackdown on the opposition ahead of the October elections. Lissu's Chadema party has been banned from taking part after refusing to sign an electoral "code of conduct" without significant reforms. The day after Hassan warned foreign activists, Atuhaire was still in detention and "couldn't step on the floor" due to the beatings on her feet, she said. "The pain was unimaginable," she said, but her captors forced her to "get up and exercise". In the following days, until her release, she says she was kept blindfolded, living in fear of what might happen next. "We were both treated worse than dogs, chained, blindfolded and underwent a very gruesome torture," said Mwangi, struggling to walk, after he was released and had returned to the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday. "The situation in Tanzania is very bad. I think what happened to us is what happens to all Tanzanian activists," he said. Atuhaire says she will file a complaint against Tanzania for the torture she suffered. "For me, the need for justice supersedes anything, any feeling of shame, which I don't even feel," she told AFP. "Of course it is difficult. I have physical pain. I am sure after that I'll deal with mental psychological pain. But I will not give anyone, any of these murderers, criminal organisations that we have as governments, the pleasure" of seeing her broken, she said. burs-jf/er/rbu/jhb
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sexually assaulted and smeared in excrement: Uganda activist details torture in Tanzania
Stripped naked, beaten until she could no longer walk, sexually assaulted and covered in excrement: award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire told AFP of the torture she suffered at the hands of security forces in Tanzania this week. Atuhaire, who won an International Women of Courage Award from the United States last year, was arrested on Monday in Tanzania's business hub Dar es Salaam. She had travelled there to support opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is on trial for treason, facing a potential death penalty, ahead of elections in October. Atuhaire was abandoned early Friday by Tanzanian agents near the Ugandan border after a brutal ordeal, she said. "What happened in Tanzania stays in Tanzania," she said she was told. "We have videos of you." Atuhaire was arrested along with Boniface Mwangi, a well-known rights activist from Kenya who also wanted to attend the trial. Police told her: "Whites are sending you to destabilise our country," she told AFP in an interview in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Friday. After being interrogated, Atuhaire and Mwangi were blindfolded and driven to an unknown location. There, they took Mwangi out of the car and began beating him. "He was screaming," said Atuhaire, adding that the agents had played gospel songs on the car radio, apparently trying to muffle the sound. She says she was stripped naked, her hands cuffed to her ankles. She has injuries on her forearms and legs. One of the Tanzanian officers then hit the soles of her feet "with all his might", while another inserted an object into her anus, she said. "I had never known pain like that existed," she said. "I don't remember which pain was worse," she added. "After that beating, I scream, I scream." Then they smeared her body with excrement, she said. The whole scene was filmed -- "to humiliate, instil fear but also silence you", she said. "They are used to sexual abuse being something a victim is ashamed of. (But) I am not that victim... I am not the one who should be ashamed. You are the one who is committing a heinous crime, so you are the one who should be ashamed," Atuhaire said. The US State Department said Saturday it was "deeply concerned" about the reports of mistreatment of Atuhaire and Mwangi, calling for "an immediate and full investigation". Amnesty International also said the "torture and forcible deportation" of Mwangi and Atuhaire must be "urgently investigated". AFP attempted to reach the Tanzanian government for comment, but there was no immediate response. - 'Pain was unimaginable' - Atuhaire, a lawyer and journalist, is a fierce critic of the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for almost 40 years. Her work in exposing corruption as head of the Agora Centre for Research has earned her international recognition. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said Monday foreign activists were attempting to "intrude and interfere" in the country's affairs. She urged the security services "not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here". Rights groups accuse Hassan of a brutal crackdown on the opposition ahead of the October elections. Lissu's Chadema party has been banned from taking part after refusing to sign an electoral "code of conduct" without significant reforms. The day after Hassan warned foreign activists, Atuhaire was still in detention and "couldn't step on the floor" due to the beatings on her feet, she said. "The pain was unimaginable," she said, but her captors forced her to "get up and exercise". In the following days, until her release, she says she was kept blindfolded, living in fear of what might happen next. "We were both treated worse than dogs, chained, blindfolded and underwent a very gruesome torture," said Mwangi, struggling to walk, after he was released and had returned to the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday. "The situation in Tanzania is very bad. I think what happened to us is what happens to all Tanzanian activists," he said. Atuhaire says she will file a complaint against Tanzania for the torture she suffered. "For me, the need for justice supersedes anything, any feeling of shame, which I don't even feel," she told AFP. "Of course it is difficult. I have physical pain. I am sure after that I'll deal with mental psychological pain. But I will not give anyone, any of these murderers, criminal organisations that we have as governments, the pleasure" of seeing her broken, she said. burs-jf/er/rbu/jhb
BBC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Ugandan activist allege say dem rape am during detention for Tanzania
Warning: Dis tori get details of sexual assault One Ugandan activist wey dem arrest and hold for days in Tanzania and dem later find at di border between di two kontris don tell di BBC say dem rape am for detention. Expanding on wetin she bin tok earlier, her rights group tok say she show "indications of torture", Agather Atuhaire allege say pipo wey wear plain clothes "blindfold" her, afta which dem hit her, "violently" strip and sexually assault her. Dem hold Atuhaire wia she no fit tok for Tanzania alongside fellow Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, wey dem later find on Thursday for di border. Di Tanzanian authorities neva comment. "Di pain dey too much," Atuhaire tok, showing di BBC one mark from wia dem handcuff am. She add say she dey "scream so hard" dem gatz cover her mouth. Atuhaire tell di BBC about her alleged rape in graphic detail. She tok say she also hear screams from Mwangi, and pipo wey dey hold am threaten to circumcise am. Di pair do go to Tanzania to show solidarity wit opposition leader Tundu Lissu, im appear for court on Monday afta dem charge am wit treason Mwangi recount im alleged experience for one post on X: "Dem torture us, and ask us to strip naked and to go baff. We no fit waka and dem tell us to crawl and go wash off di blood." Despite say dem allow am into di kontri, Mwangi and Atuhaire no dey permitted to attend di hearing and arrest dem. On Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan don warn say she no go allow activists from neighbouring kontri to "meddle" in her kontri affairs and cause "chaos". Dem find Atuhaire wia dem abandon her at di border on Thursday night afta she bin dey custody since Monday, Agora Centre for Research, one Uganda-based rights group, post on X. Uganda high commissioner to Tanzania Fred Mwesigye tok say Atuhaire don "safely returned home" and "her family don warmly receive am". Mwangi, wet dem bin don find on roadside for northern Tanzania near di Kenyan border, tok say im dey hear as Atuhaire dey "groan in pain" wen dem hold dem togada on Tuesday. "Any attempt to speak to each oda during di night dem torture, and kick and insult us. Dem remove us from di torture location in different vehicles," Mwangi tok. E tok say pipo wey hold dem dey get dia orders from di "state security" official, dem direct am to give di activist "Tanzanian treatment". Mwangi disappearance don spark widespread concern across Kenya, wit im family, civil society and human rights group wey organise protests and demand for im release. On Wednesday, di Kenyan goment formally protested against im detention, accusing di Tanzanian authorities of denying consular access despite repeated requests. Earlier on Thursday, Kenya foreign affairs ministry issue one statement wia dem tok say dem no get access to di activist. Regional rights groups don call for investigation into di alleged mistreatment of di activists by di Tanzanian authorities and urge all East African kontris make dem uphold rights treaties. Additional reporting by Basillioh Rukanga in Nairobi
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
US ‘deeply concerned' over activists' treatment in Tanzania
The United States expressed concern Saturday over the 'mistreatment' of two east African activists in Tanzania, days after they were detained and reportedly tortured. Prominent campaigners Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda travelled to Tanzania this week in solidarity with detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu ahead of his court hearing on charges of treason, which carries a potential death penalty. But they themselves were detained before being deported and then found abandoned near the Tanzanian border. Mwangi and rights groups allege that both were tortured while held 'incommunicado' for days. The US Bureau of African Affairs said on X it was 'deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment' of Atuhaire and Mwangi while in Tanzania. 'We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses,' it said, urging 'all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture.' Atuhaire received in 2023 the EU Human Rights Defender Award for her work in Uganda and was honored last year with the International Women of Courage Award by former US First Lady Jill Biden. Mwangi is a longtime critic of the Kenyan government, frequently denouncing instances of alleged injustice and rights abuses. Human rights groups say Tanzania and neighboring Uganda have accelerated crackdowns on opponents and dissidents as they prepare for presidential elections in the next seven months. But Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has slammed what she called interference in the country's affairs and had urged security services 'not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.'
