Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has come forward with harrowing details of torture and abuse he says he endured while in Tanzanian custody, alongside Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire. The two had traveled to Dar es Salaam to show solidarity with Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu but became, in Mwangi’s words, victims of a “politically motivated and inhumane ordeal.”
Mwangi, who was released on Thursday after being detained since Monday, recounted that the last time he was physically near Atuhaire was the morning of Tuesday, May 20. Atuhaire was later found dumped at the Mutukula border between Tanzania and Uganda.
“We had been tortured, and we were told to strip naked and to go bathe. We couldn’t walk and were told to crawl and go wash off the blood,” Mwangi said in a detailed statement. “We were handcuffed and blindfolded, so I didn’t even see her, but I heard her groaning in pain as they barked orders at us.”
“Any attempt to speak to each other during the night we were tortured was met with kicks and insults,” he continued. “We were removed from the torture location in different vehicles.”
Mwangi alleges that a Tanzanian state security officer orchestrated their ordeal. The officer allegedly trailed them from immigration offices to the Central Police Station, later ordering their removal to an undisclosed location for what Mwangi was told was “Tanzanian treatment.”
“That man assaulted me in the presence of three lawyers from the Tanganyika Law Society,” Mwangi claimed. “He scared the three lawyers, and they left us at Central Police Station, where we were removed while handcuffed and blindfolded.”
He described the officer as overweight, of average height, with light brown skin, wavy short hair, and a sagging potbelly. On the day of the incident, he wore a black suit with a white shirt—no tie—and reportedly reports directly to President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Mwangi also expressed deep gratitude to those who campaigned for his release.
“Words can’t express my gratitude to all of you for raising your voices to get me released,” he said. “I say ‘me’ because we are yet to know the whereabouts of my friend and comrade, Agather.”
“You cannot torture us and then dictate how we should react,” Mwangi added. “We were detained, tortured, and treated worse than rabid dogs in the name of President Suluhu.”
He emphasized that their visit was peaceful and part of a long-standing tradition of Pan-African solidarity. “We were there peacefully as members of the East African Community to attend a court hearing in solidarity with Chadema’s party leader, Tundu Lissu,” Mwangi said.
Recalling previous acts of support across the continent, he added: “When Freeman Mbowe was jailed in Tanzania, I visited him. When Dr. Stella Nyanzi was jailed in Uganda, I went to see her. When Bobi Wine was under house arrest, I visited him too.”
Mwangi explained that their trip to Tanzania was meant to be a brief one-day visit before heading to Uganda for another case involving opposition leader Kizza Besigye. That plan, he said, was violently interrupted.
Despite the ordeal, he reaffirmed his commitment to transnational activism. “Our arrest and detention should not stop the solidarity among African activists. Dictators are united, and only our own unity can help democratize our countries.”
He concluded with a direct accusation: “Everything that happened to us in Tanzania was done in Samia Suluhu’s name, and we will ensure the world gets to know. We shall speak for the Tanzanian victims who are too afraid to speak.”
“What Suluhu did to us will be revealed to the world. We shall not be silenced by a torturous dictator who has her foot on the necks of the Tanzanian people.
