Defenders Coalition executive director Kamau Ngugi/FILEThe 2024 Human Rights Award jury has demanded immediate release of activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan lawyer Agatha Atuhaire after they were arrested by Tanzanian authorities from their hotel rooms.
The group said they were deeply concerned over the safety of Mwangi and Atuhaire whose whereabouts remain unknown since their arrest.
“The Tanzanian authorities had informed the Tanganyika Law Society, the East Africa Law Society and the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, that they would be deported by Monday back to their home countries. This is not the case,” they said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“We condemn the prolonged detention of the two human rights defenders and call on the Tanzania authorities to uphold their rights in accordance with national, regional and international human rights laws including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the East African Community Treaty, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The group comprises former chief justice Willy Mutunga and activists Rachael Mwikali, Andrew Maina, Njeri Kabeberi, Ikal Ang’elei, Kamanda Mucheke, Grace Lolim, and cartoonist Geoffrey Mwampembwa, famously known as Gaddo.
Mwangi is a winner of the 2024 human rights defender of the year award alongside Hanifa Adan and Hussein Khalid.
Led by Defenders Coalition executive director Kamau Ngugi, the group said the Tanzanian government has ignored multiple pleas to free the two, and that they will “continue to demand respect for human dignity and the respect for fundamental rights and freedoms for all people.”
“We call for the immediate release and safe return of the two human rights defenders to their home countries,” they said.
The two were arrested at the Serena Hotel in Dar es Salaam on Monday, May 19, 2025, by persons who identified themselves as police officers.
Initial reports showed they had been detained at the Central Police Station in Dar es Salaam.
They were in Tanzania to observe the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is on trial for treason charges.
There was also information that the two would be deported back to their respective countries, but their families say they are yet to know their whereabouts.
Other activists who had been denied entry into the country include People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua, Mutunga, Hussein Khalid, Hanifa Adan and lawyers Gloria Kimani and Lynn Ngugi, upon their arrival at the Julius Nyerere International Airport on diverse dates.
They were equally on a mission to observe the trial of Lissu.
