Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has been found following days of detention by authorities in Tanzania.
A spokesperson of the Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary and Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi said Mwangi was freed on Thursday, May 22 morning but added no further details on his health condition or where he had been freed.
However, a family spokesperson said that the activist was dropped near the border between the two countries at the Coast region where he was found.
Mwangi’s whereabouts remained unknown until Thursday since he was arrested by suspected military officers in Tanzania after travelling there on Monday to observe the treason trial of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
A family spokesperson revealed that the activist had been rushed to a local hospital for a medical review after he was deported from Tanzania by road and abandoned near Ukunda in Kwale County.
Earlier, a contingent of police officers was deployed to the Tanzania High Commission headquarters in Nairobi ahead of planned protests by activists.
The demonstrations were threatened following the detention of the human rights activist in Tanzania.
Videos seen by The Kenya Times showed heavily armed anti-riot police stationed outside the High Commission along Agha Khan Walk in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), with some officers dressed in full anti-riot gear.
Kenya’s Foreign Ministry denied access
Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier on Thursday said Tanzanian authorities have denied it access to the activist since his arrest.
In a statement, the ministry further urged Dodoma to “expeditiously and without delay” facilitate consular access to or release of Mwangi, per international legal obligations and diplomatic norms.
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Nairobi highlighted that Kenya and Tanzania are state parties to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which provides that consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending state and to have access to them.
Further, the ministry said that consular officers have the right to visit a national of the sending state who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.
They also have the right to visit any national of the sending state who is in prison, custody or detention in their district in pursuance of a judgement
According to the ministry, “despite several requests, officials of the Government of Kenya have been denied consular access and information to Mr Mwangi.”
“The Ministry is also concerned about his health, overall wellbeing and the absence of information regarding his detention,” read part of the statement.
“The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs respectfully urges the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania to expeditiously and without delay facilitate consular access to or release of Mr. Mwangi, in accordance with international legal obligations and diplomatic norms.”
Boniface Mwangi detained in Tanzania
On Wednesday, Boniface Mwangi’s wife, journalist Njeri Mwangi said she had visited the Tanzania High Commission in Nairobi where officials told her they did not have information about her husband.
“I last spoke to Boniface on Monday afternoon. The Tanzanian authorities are saying they have deported him but why is there no communication? Where is Bonnie?” she told reporters.
“Give us back Boniface, wounded or dead. It has been very agonising for my family and it is not fair or right what they are doing to him.”
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A Tanzanian rights group on Tuesday said they had been told by police that Mwangi and fellow Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, who was also arrested in Dar, had been deported.
Amnesty International however said the duo was held incommunicado by military officers.
Mwangi was among several East African activists and lawyers who travelled to Tanzania to stand in solidarity with Lissu.
Most were, however, denied entry upon landing at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam on Sunday and Monday, detained then later deported to Nairobi.
Later on Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan told a televised address that foreign activists would not be allowed to “interfere” in Tanzania’s affairs.
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