Tanzania deports Kenyan, Ugandan activists
Tanzanian police arrested and later deported prominent human rights activists from Kenya and Uganda, advocacy groups have said.
Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire had been held at the central police station in Dar Es Salaam, the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition said in a statement.
They had traveled to the city to observe a hearing in the treason trial of Tanzania's main opposition leader Tundu Lissu. His appearance in court was his first since being arrested in April. Prosecutors say Lissu had made a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt elections due in October.
His CHADEMA party has said it will boycott the vote until an electoral process they say favors the ruling party is reformed.
Lissu is one among several high profile opposition arrests that have shone a spotlight on President Samia Suluhu Hassan's rights record.
Hassan, who is seeking re-election in October, says her government is committed to respecting human rights.
But at the court, former Kenyan Chief Justice David Maraga - who had traveled to Tanzania in a show of solidarity - said the "shrinking democratic space" in East Africa is "very concerning".
"We have seen that in Uganda, we have seen it here in Tanzania and even in Kenya, one way or the other, we are seeing it coming even with the kidnapping of young people. We are very very concerned about that."
Hassan had warned foreign human rights activists against "invading and interfering in our affairs".
In a televised address, she also asked security services to block them from entering the country. Several Kenyan rights activists, including a former justice minister, said they were denied entry. An immigration spokesperson said he was not aware of Mwangi's and Atuhaire arrests and would look into it.
Spokespeople for the government and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
