US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch has condemned abuse of human rights in East Africa, saying it exposes state decay and impunity.
Risch, who has in the recent past intensified his engagements on the region, and Kenya in particular, said the abuses are a threat to regional security.
“Rising abductions and torture in East Africa signal more than abuse; they expose state decay and impunity. That’s a direct threat to regional stability, security and US interests,” Senator Risch said on X.
The Republican senator was reacting to a statement by the Bureau of African Affairs on the abduction and deportation of activists from the region.
The bureau said the United States was deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment in Tanzania of Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire and Kenya’s Boniface Mwangi.
It noted that Atuhaire had been recognised by the US State Department in 2024 as an International Women of Courage Awardee.
“We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses. We urge all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture,” the bureau said.
Mwangi and Atuhaire were arrested at the Serena Hotel in Dar es Salaam on May 19 after they arrived to observe the treason trial of Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu.
They were later dumped at the respective borders with Tanzania after being tortured.
Amnesty International has since called on Tanzanian authorities to investigate the “arbitrary arrest, torture, incommunicado detention and forcible deportation” of the two human rights defenders.
“For four days, these two human rights defenders were subjected to unimaginable cruelty,” Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa regional director Tigere Chagutah said on May 27.
“Their ordeal highlights the dangers faced by human rights defenders in Tanzania, and there must be accountability and justice. Amnesty International demands effective investigations be opened immediately.”
Tanzania President Suluhu Hassan defended the detentions and the abductions, saying the activists were out to destabilise her country.
"We've started seeing a trend where some activists from our neighbouring countries are trying to meddle in our business," she said.
“If they have been contained in their own country, let them not try to come to ruin our peace.”
Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi said he would not protest Suluhu’s remarks as they contained “some truth”.
“Let us face a few facts. The level of etiquette, insults that we see in Kenya, even though we have the freedom of speech, is sometimes going overboard to some extent,” he told Citizen TV on Monday.
“She is saying people have sometimes gone to extremes in their utterances in Kenya, which is a fact.”
He called for introspection on Kenyans’ approach and utterances, saying freedom of speech had bred a lack of integrity.
Senator Risch’s comments follow his previous proposal for a review of US ties with Kenya over its close relations with China, saying it was a threat to Washington’s interests.
Human rights remains a key foreign policy agenda for the US and such abuses risk deteriorating the US-Kenya relations.
Kenya has increasingly come under criticism over rights abuses, especially following the Gen Z protests in June last year.
For instance, submissions to the UN Human Rights Council review process documented various abuses emanating from the demos.
The report, a compilation of submissions by different lobbies and institutions, noted Kenya experienced an unprecedented number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Kenya underwent the fourth Universal Periodic Review on April 28-May 9, a process in which each UN member state undergoes a peer review of its human rights record every four and a half years.
