Tanzania frees activist after the claim of the Kenyan government

An activist who held up in Tanzania for three days was short after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya had demanded his release.

A senior official in the ministry, Korir Sing’oei, said on X that Boniface Mwangi was “back in the country”.

Lawyer and colleague activist, Khalid Hussein, told the BBC that they were together in the Kenya coastal region.

The Kenyan activist was arrested on Monday in Dar Es Salaam, next to the Ugandan Agather Atuhare by suspected military officers and their place of residence remained unknown.

They had been to the country to attend the lawsuit of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, accused of betrayal.

The Tanzanian authorities have not commented on the detention and deportation of Mwangi.

But on Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned that she would not allow activists from neighboring countries to “interfere” and cause “chaos” in the affairs of her country.

Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement that it had not had access to the activist.

It said that despite repeated requests, the “consular access had been refused” or information about him and his concern about his health.

At Tanzania it insisted on allowing access to “quickly and without delay” or to release him “, in accordance with international legal obligations and diplomatic standards”.

Later, the rights committee funded by the State said that it had received the activist in Kwale County, after his release from Tanzania.

KNCHR posted a photo of him alongside other people, including his wife, Njeri, and colleague activist Hussein and said he was “in a cheerfulness”. The committee said it was planning to transfer him to the capital Nairobi for medical help.

The activist was reportedly left on the Kenyan border on Thursday morning after his release by the Tanzanian authorities.

On Wednesday, his wife told the BBC that she had heard from him for the last time on Monday and could not have determined where he was.

“I am actually worried about his life. I know my husband, he would have communicated, he would find a way to call or text me and because he did not make that, I am very concerned about the state he is in,” she told the BBC NewSday radio program.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya expressed similar concerns about the “health, overall well -being and the absence of information about his detention” of the activist on Thursday.

It said that diplomats should have access to their subjects held by a host country in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

“In the light of the above, the (ministry) respectfully traced the government of the United Republic of Tanzania to facilitate consular access to Mr. Mwangi quickly and without delay,” it said.

The explanation came in the midst of the growing indignation, especially after the expulsion of Tanzania of the former Kenyan Minister of Justice Martha Karua and other activists, who had also gone to attend Lissu’s hearing at the weekend.

In recent months, law groups have expressed concern about the apparent action against the opposition of Tanzania prior to the October elections.

Additional reporting by Laillah Mohamed in Nairobi