I have been to Tanzania one time. Just once was enough for me to understand that we absolutely loathe each other on a deep, unfixable level. With my Mombasa Swahili, I had hoped that Tanzanians would embrace us as their neighbours and treat us as well as their own people, but boy was I wrong! The cops flocked us as soon as we alighted the bus. The border control personnel were a nightmare, and they did not price anything for East Africans. It was either the Tanzanian price or the mzungu price.
Still, I believed we would treat each other fairly in a diplomatic capacity. Yet, many stories would come out of Tanzania and how badly they treated our people. If you want to know the full extent of corruption, drive on Tanzanian roads with your Kenyan plate numbers. As the Swahili saying goes: Utaona cha mtema kuni!
Before the recent abductions of Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan Agather Atuhaire, I was made aware of Tanzania's unlawful kidnappings and detentions through the abduction of two journalists who work for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In late 2019, Tanzanian police unlawfully detained Angela Quintal of South Africa and Muthoki Mumo of Kenya. The two, who travelled for work, were investigating the arrest of journalist Erick Kabendera. During their work, meeting and interviewing several local officials, they were taken away to an undisclosed location, where they were kept under duress.
Their personal belongings were searched and information deleted. They were questioned for days and they even physically harmed Muthoki. If there is something you should know about the inferiority complex of Tanzanians, they would kiss the ground South Africans walked on and spit on us Kenyans. I would know.
Long before I did my master’s degree in journalism in South Africa, studying and living with Tanzanians, I did my undergraduate studies in Kenya. Who was my classmate for most of the four years because we basically studied the same thing? Yes, Muthoki.
Years later, she and I found ourselves sharing a course at the University of Hamburg, where I was doing my exchange programme and she was completing her master's degree.
Our previous colleague relationship blossomed into a full-blown friendship as we travelled through Europe together and spent almost every day together. Learning that she had been abducted by the goons that called themselves police in Tanzania had me worried. I followed the case until I knew she was back safe in Kenya, even though the incident left her traumatised, as I discovered when I finally spoke to her.
Personally, this incident was a glaring insight into the ruthless culture of illegal abductions, torture and Tanzania's absolute contempt for freedom of speech, journalists and Kenyans as a whole. When I read about the abductions of Boniface Mwangi and Agather, I found myself reliving the Muthoki Mumo incident, deep down fearing that the two would surely be put through the worst… and they were.
Martha Karua and her entourage were lucky to have escaped the brutality that the two activists faced. Her previous political position and her affiliation with the current government is what earned her that ‘diplomatic’ out; otherwise, she would also have had stories to tell.
Say what you will about our government, but Kenyans enjoy more freedoms than their East African counterparts. We yap on screens, we march on the streets and we topple regimes on Twitter. We forget that not all countries allow our shenanigans. We are free here. We cannot expect the same level of acceptance in other countries. Keep in mind that the EAC was only put in place to benefit the countries economically. Our rights as citizens of Kenya end as soon as we cross these borders.
