Tanzania deports leading Kenyan human rights lawyer

Top Kenyan lawyer and the country's former Justice Minister, Martha Karua, appears to be the latest casualty of Tanzania's political crackdown as she, and two of her colleagues, were detained and deported while attempting to attend the court case of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who has been charged with treason, notes Legalbrief. According to BBC News, the trio flew into Tanzania from neighbouring Kenya. Tanzanian authorities have not yet commented on the matter. Lissu, who is the leader of Tanzania's main opposition Chadema party, was due to appear in court today after being charged with treason last month. 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 Odigna in his failed presidential bid in elections in 2022.

Karua launched her own opposition party, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), earlier this year. The PLP said that Karua, 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 the what it called the ‘arbitrary arrests’, as Karua had been allowed into Tanzania to observe proceedings when Lissu appeared in court on 15 April, according to BBC News. 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’.

Karua told AFP earlier this month that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were seeing a ‘total erosion of democratic principles’, reports Modern Ghana. ‘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. She accused the leadership of the three countries of ‘collaborating’. ‘It's a pattern,’ she said. ‘They are neutering the opposition ahead of elections.’ Karua is preparing to run for the Kenyan Presidency in 2027. She faces competition from an array of opposition leaders in the country, all hoping to take on President William Ruto, whose popularity was undermined by mass protests last year over tax rises and corruption. In the 2022 election, Karua was the running mate of Raila Odinga, who lost out to Ruto. Kenya is in ‘total disarray’, she told AFP. ‘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.

In Tanzania another senior member of the country's main opposition was detained while he was trying to fly to Belgium for a democracy conference, the Chadema party said on Tuesday, according to a report in DW. Amani Golugwa, Chadema's deputy secretary general, was detained at the Julius Nyerere International Airport late on Monday evening. Golugwa has since been released on bail, his party said on X. Golugwa was due to travel to Brussels to represent Chadema at the International Democracy Union conference (IDU), a gathering of centre-right political parties. The police confirmed the arrest in a statement posted on Instagram, alleging that Golugwa ‘has a trend of leaving and returning to the country without following legal procedures’. ‘Dar es Salaam police special zone is continuing with the investigation on the matter in collaboration with other security organs,’ the post added. The arrest is the latest to target the opposition party in the east African nation, which is gearing up for elections in October. Human rights groups and critics have accused the Tanzanian Government of Samia Suluhu Hassan – the country's first female President who is expected to seek re-election – of repressing the opposition. Authorities accused Lissu of fomenting unrest and to disrupt the elections during his speeches, in which he and the party demanded major electoral reforms to a process they say favours the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduz. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Lissu had been arrested on ‘fabricated charges’. HRW also accused Tanzanian authorities of using Chadema's calls for electoral reform ‘to disqualify it from participating’ in the October elections. Hassan has insisted that her government is committed to defending human rights.

Meanwhile, Karua and former Kenyan Chief Justice David Maraga have reacted angrily to Ruto's seeming admission to abductions in Kenya, and called for thorough investigations and prosecution of the culprits. Ruto on Monday opened a can of worms after he said every victim of abduction had been reunited with their families. He assured that cases of abductions, enforced disappearances and killings would cease. Maraga and Karua also called on the government to ensure the Constitution was upheld, reports the Kenyans. In separate statements, Maraga and Karua criticised Ruto for what they termed his nonchalant acknowledgement of abductions in Kenya. Most of the abductions were last year. Maraga took issue with Ruto announcing that there were no ongoing abductions and his subsequent vow to eradicate the vice. Maraga demanded investigations based on recommendations of the 1 May Universal Periodic Review process in Geneva. The former CJ also pressured the government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and adopt national legislation to prevent and criminalise enforced disappearances. This, Maraga said, was due to Kenya’s membership in the UN's Human Rights Council. Karua asked Ruto to acknowledge the role of security forces in the alleged abductions and enforced disappearances. She also wants the security forces who were captured on camera brought to book.