A renowned Tanzanian rights activist was kidnapped on the streets of the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Sunday, only to be released after a rapid intervention by rights groups.
Maria Sarungi Tsehai’s campaigns for political change and women’s rights in Tanzania have earned her a huge following, including 1.3 million followers on X, but she has been forced to live in exile in recent years.
Amnesty International raised the alarm on Sunday, saying she had been “kidnapped by three armed men in a black (Toyota) Noah” in the Kilimani area of central Nairobi.
Her organisation, Change Tanzania, wrote on X that they believed her abductors to be “Tanzania security agents operating beyond Tanzania borders to silence… legitimate criticism”.
Several hours later, the Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo posted on X that they had managed to secure her release.
“Maria Sarungi Tsehai has been released and is safe for now,” Odhiambo wrote. “The unfortunate ordeal she endured paints a worrying picture of the state of our country’s human rights context.”
She also posted a video of a deeply shaken Tsehai who thanked those who helped her, saying: “Today I have been saved.”
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been accused by rights groups and Western governments of overseeing a crackdown on opposition forces ahead of elections later this year, including mass arrests and abductions of opponents.
Kenya has a growing reputation for allowing foreign governments to kidnap their citizens and forcibly extradite them in violation of international law.
In October, four Turkish refugees were abducted in Nairobi and forcibly returned to Turkey.
The following month, Uganda said it had worked with Kenyan authorities to seize a Ugandan opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, in Nairobi and take him back to Kampala for a widely condemned military trial.
Amnesty International warned it was part of a “growing and worrying trend of transnational repression” in Kenya.
Kenya has also been hit by a wave of abductions of its own citizens, targeting critics of President William Ruto in the wake of massive youth-led protests last June.
Earlier Sunday, a member of Ruto’s cabinet became the first to speak out over the kidnappings, saying his own son had been a victim.
Justin Muturi, attorney general under Ruto from October 2022 to July 2024 and now head of the public service ministry, said his son “was abducted and disappeared and I was not sure if he was alive or dead.”
Local media reports from the time said Muturi’s son Leslie had been bundled into a car after leaving a bar in central Nairobi in June. Friends told Citizen TV he was released the following day.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says at least 82 people have been abducted since the protests, with dozens still missing.
Kenya’s high court has ordered the country’s top policeman to appear for questioning on January 27 over a recent series of abductions or be charged with contempt.
Ruto has admitted to excesses by security forces. Speaking on December 27 he even said “we will stop” the abductions, though he also called on parents to better control their children.
The ambassadors of the United States and Britain, close allies of Kenya, have criticised the incidents and called for full investigations.
