Police in Tanzania round up protesters on election day after demonstrations broke out over an alleged sham electoral process on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. /SCREENGRABPressure is mounting on Tanzania to explain the fate of missing and detained Kenyans following Tanzania’s October 28 disputed elections.
A coalition of rights groups has accused the country's security forces of gross human rights abuses in a strongly worded rebuke issued Friday.
In a joint statement, Vocal Africa, the Defenders Coalition and Amnesty International Kenya condemned what they termed a “total breakdown of the rule of law” and demanded urgent accountability from the Tanzanian government.
The statement cited two alarming cases involving Kenyan nationals — John Okoth Ogutu, a teacher at Sky Schools in Dar es Salaam who was allegedly shot dead on October 29, 2025, and Fredrick Lorent Obuya, who was reportedly unlawfully arrested and detained two days later by Tanzanian security forces.
Obuya is reportedly being held incommunicado at Oyster Bay police station in Dar es Salaam.
“These are not isolated incidents but rather emblematic of the escalating repression unleashed by Tanzanian authorities against the public, journalists and human rights defenders after the disputed elections,” the statement said.
The organisations expressed deep concern over recent remarks by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and other state officials, who claimed that foreign nationals were responsible for the election violence that has claimed hundreds of lives.
“These accusations are unfounded and dangerous,” the groups warned. “They pose a serious threat to Kenyans and other foreign nationals residing in Tanzania.”
The statement added that the killing of Ogutu and detention of Obuya violated Tanzanian constitutional law and international treaties such as the East African Community Treaty, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
An estimated 20,000 Kenyans live and work in Tanzania, many as teachers, health workers, entrepreneurs and engineers.
The groups said the government of Kenya has a duty to protect its citizens abroad and to demand justice when their rights are violated.
They also drew attention to the ongoing case of Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, two Kenyans allegedly kidnapped and detained in Uganda for 38 days without access to their families, lawyers or consular officials.
The statement urged Kenyan authorities to act firmly on their behalf as well.
While acknowledging recent bilateral talks between Kenyan and Tanzanian foreign ministers, the groups insisted that dialogue must translate into concrete action.
They issued seven key demands, including immediate repatriation of Ogutu’s body to Kenya with full government facilitation and an independent postmortem in the presence of family and human rights observers.
They also want Obuya released unconditionally or his prompt appearance before a competent court.
The groups are aldo demanding a formal apology and reparations to both families, safety assessments for Kenyans and other foreign nationals in Tanzania, and legal action before the East African Court of Justice to address arbitrary arrests, deportations and surveillance.
“Under international law, Tanzanians have the right to demand accountability for pre-election repression,” the statement concluded.
“Kenyans working in Tanzania must not be scapegoated by an administration that has violently suppressed civic space.”
In their closing message, the groups expressed solidarity with the people of Tanzania in their struggle for human rights and called on the governments of Kenya, the AU, SADC, EAC and the UN to act decisively to protect foreign nationals in the country.
