In Eastern Africa today, activism is under siege. Brave individuals who dare to speak truth to power, demand justice and amplify the cries of the oppressed are being harassed, abducted, detained and even tortured, not for committing crimes but for dreaming of a freer, fairer region.
Governments that ought to protect civic space are instead tightening the noose around it. The trend is not only dangerous, it is anti-democratic and counterproductive. Activism is not a threat to national security. It is a lifeline to democracy.
Last week, Mwabili Mwagodi, a Kenyan activist and human rights defender, was abducted while in employment in Tanzania. Mwabili had worked in Tanzania for years and was there lawfully with a work permit.
On July 23, he was seized, held incommunicado, tortured physically and mentally, then later handed over to Kenyan officers in a remote forest in Kwale county. He was denied legal recourse, had his documents and phones taken and continues to face threats to his life. His crime? Daring to speak against injustice.
A few months earlier, in May, Boniface Mwangi, a celebrated Kenyan photojournalist and long-time activist, together with Agather Atuhaire, a prominent Ugandan lawyer and anti-corruption crusader, were also detained in Tanzania.
The two had travelled to attend a court case involving the Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Instead of being welcomed as regional voices for democracy, they were targeted, isolated, tortured and deported. These arrests had nothing to do with immigration. They were acts of state intimidation.
Around the same time, I was also deported from Tanzania under murky circumstances. Alongside Chief Justice Emeritus Dr Willy Mutunga and activist Hanifa Adan, we had travelled in solidarity with fellow defenders. We were received not as partners in democratic growth, but as suspects to be silenced.
These incidents are not isolated. They reflect a broader pattern of shrinking civic space and the deliberate criminalisation of activism across the region.
Activism is the heartbeat of democratic development. It challenges impunity, amplifies marginalised voices and keeps governments accountable to their people. Every major democratic gain in Eastern Africa – from multiparty reforms to the fall of dictatorships – has been championed by bold activists and movements of activists who refused to be silenced.
Activists provide what governments often fail to offer—truth, resistance, hope and a mirror to power. They are the bridge between the people and the state, the whistleblowers of abuse, the guardians of public interest. To criminalise their work is to sabotage democracy from within.
Yet across East Africa, we are witnessing an aggressive backlash against activism. Peaceful protestors are shot in the streets. Community organisers are disappeared without a trace. Journalists exposing corruption are branded as “foreign agents”. The state, in many instances, has declared war on conscience.
Perhaps the most alarming trend is the misuse of anti-terrorism laws to target activists. These laws, originally designed to combat violent extremism, are now being twisted to punish civil dissent. In Uganda, journalists like Agather Atuhaire have been surveilled and intimidated under the pretext of national security.
In Kenya, activists have been slapped with charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act simply for participating in protests. In Tanzania, counterterrorism units have been deployed to monitor student organisers and grassroots campaigners.
This weaponisation is profoundly dangerous. It undermines the legitimacy of real counterterrorism efforts, erodes public trust in law enforcement and violates the rights to expression, association and peaceful assembly.
Worst of all, it sends an unfair message that to challenge the state is to risk your life. This approach is not only repressive, it is counterproductive. Silencing activism breeds resentment, not loyalty. It fuels instability, not peace, and it isolates governments from the very citizens they claim to serve.
It is time to decriminalise activism in Eastern Africa. We must repeal laws and policies that target defenders for doing their work. Governments must protect, not prosecute, those who speak out. Regional bodies such as the East African Community must hold member states accountable for cross-border violations of civic freedoms. The judiciary must shield human rights defenders, not rubber-stamp their persecution.
Moreover, we must end the culture of impunity that allows state agents to abduct and torture activists with no consequences. Transparency, due process and constitutional safeguards must be non-negotiable. Activism is not treason. Dissent is not terrorism, and patriotism does not mean silence in the face of injustice.
To the human rights defenders, community organisers, journalists, artists, students and freedom fighters across Eastern Africa, remain steadfast, refuse to be intimidated, refuse to be divided, refuse to be silenced. Continue to call out the Presidents and regimes of East Africa for the transgressions committed against their people.
East Africans, let us stand united in the face of repression. Let us defend the right to dream, to speak, to assemble and to act. Because a region that criminalises its activists is not secure. It is unstable, and a state that fears its citizens is not strong, it is fragile.
Human rights activist, lawyer and CEO of @VOCALAfrica
