Former Chief Justice (CJ) Willy Mutunga, along with Kenyan activists Hanifa Adan and Hussein Khalid, have allegedly been denied entry into Tanzania to prevent them from attending the court trial of opposition party leader and advocate Tundu Lissu, who is charged with treason.
This came just hours after People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader and lawyer Martha Karua, along with Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Council member Gloria Kimani and Pan-African Progressive Leaders Solidarity Network member Lynn Ngugi, were denied entry at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam by Tanzanian immigration officials on Sunday.
While Mutunga, Adan, and Khalid were detained and deported to Kenya, another activist, former CJ David Maraga, has reportedly been cleared to attend the court hearing.
“The solution to hiding the shame of a false treason case is not to detain foreign lawyers, but to drop the case altogether,” said Chadema General Secretary John Mnyika.
According to the Pan-African Lawyers Union (PALU), excessive and unwarranted violence has also been meted out to political party leaders and members of the public who tried to observe the trial, or who were unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity at the time.
“They have been detained for several hours, their luggage confiscated, and ultimately put on a plane back to Nairobi. No senior immigration or other government official has spoken to them, and they have not been given any reason for their detention and eventual deportation,” PALU said in a statement issued on Sunday, May 19.
As arrests, deportations, and other breaches of the law continue to damage the international credibility of the Tanzanian government, public trust in the upcoming electoral process continues to wane. The question that arises is: what is happening to Kenyan-Tanzanian diplomacy?
Karua has been representing Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye, who was kidnapped in Kenya last year and taken back to Tanzania to face the same charges that Lissu is facing today – treason charges. Yet, Karua was arbitrarily arrested, along with other high-profile Kenyans, immediately upon disembarking from the plane that brought them to Tanzania.
The alleged deportation and mass denial of entry into the East African country highlights Tanzania’s weakness in international relations. It is well known that Tanzania’s upcoming electoral process has been overshadowed by abductions, enforced disappearances, violence, and repression, according to the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition.
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