NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, who travelled to Tanzania on May 18, 2025, to show solidarity with Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, have recounted being subjected to torture by alleged state officials and hired individuals.
Their intended trip to attend a court hearing turned into a harrowing ordeal after they were forcibly taken from their hotel on Monday, May 18th. The activists were subsequently moved between police stations, questioned by immigration officers, and ultimately handed over to their tormentors.
In a detailed press address on Monday 2, June 2025, Mwangi and Atuhaire described how the assault began at a police station on that fateful Monday, even while their legal representatives were present.
Mwangi recounted that while at the immigration offices, he received a call from the Kenyan Ambassador to Tanzania, who informed him of his impending deportation. “I said I am happy to go home,” Mwangi stated.
However, this did not occur. Instead, they were taken to a police station where, according to Mwangi, state security personnel began assaulting him, accusing him of attempting to destabilize Tanzania.
“We were transferred to a police station where we found a guy called Mafwele. The beating continued in the presence of three lawyers. At that station, Mafwele said he is going to rape Agather,” Mwangi recalled.
He further stated, “When the lawyers left us they did not tell our families that we are being beaten, threatened and harassed. Because Mafwele, in front of the lawyers asked if I was circumcised. He said they would circumcise me again.”
At the Central police station, an unidentified group entered. The activists were then blindfolded, forced into a Landcruiser, and driven for approximately 20 minutes to a location that became their torture chamber.
“They told me to strip naked. When I stripped, they removed my handcuffs. I was grabbed by around four men, they lifted me up so fast, and tied me upside down. They started beating my feet. They put my underwear in my mouth, they played gospel music in the car to drown my pain,” Mwangi recounted.
He further alleged that he was sexually assaulted, “in the name of Samia.” Both activists described similar sexual assaults involving the insertion of objects into their anal areas.
“They would ask me to say I am feeling nice, and say ‘Asante Samia.’ I started bleeding. All this time they are saying they are recording what they are doing to me,” Mwangi shared.
Atuhaire corroborated this, stating that their tormentors used objects, not their sexual organs, for the sexual assault. While handcuffed and blindfolded, they also endured pain inflicted on their feet.
“The people had come with one instruction. ‘Inflict as much pain as you can,” Atuhaire stated.
Following the torture, they spent Monday night on a cold floor before being transferred separately to different locations on Tuesday morning.
“I did not know where I was but could hear the call for prayers. They would come, insult me and go. On Wednesday morning they gave me a cup of tea and mandazi,” Mwangi said.
Atuhaire described the psychological impact, “The psychological torture of those hours of driving was worse than the physical torture. I kept thinking they were driving us to the park to be eaten by animals, sometimes I would hear the ocean roaring and I thought they would throw us in the ocean.”
While held, the activists were administered painkillers. Mwangi recalled being driven to a border point on Thursday morning, where a motorcycle rider was waiting to take him into Kenya. There, he was given Tsh.20,000 and Ksh.400 for transport.
Atuhaire identified a Faustine Mafwele as the individual who instructed the gang to assault them.
“Public officials were not afraid of sending us to thugs. I cannot fathom that level of open impunity. If that doesn’t scare East Africans….. sexual violence is the first thing they think of,” she shared.
“I come from a country (Uganda) where the state is dictatorial, where there’s impunity but I have never seen a worse country like Tanzania,” Atuhaire said, expressing gratitude for the calls from East Africans for their release.
“We are alive because of you, East African Citizens. We are on our own, we were saved by you, ordinary people. No guns, no money, nothing but noise. We only have each other,” she stated.
The activists have now vowed to pursue legal action against Tanzania.
