Activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist, journalist and lawyer Agatha Atuhaire on Monday narrated the torture they endured while in detention in Tanzania.

The two said that when they travelled to Dar es Salaam on May 18 for the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, they were honest with immigration officials about the nature of their visit.

“There were eight of us on the same flight, and five were let through, while three others—Martha Karua, Lynn Ngugi, and Gloria Kimani—were denied entry and later deported,” said Mwangi at an emotional press conference in Nairobi.

After gaining entry, Mwangi went to his hotel, where later that night he received a call from the front office informing him that officers at the reception wanted to see him.

“At around 12:15am, armed men in civilian clothing came and violently knocked on my door, asking to see me. They had been escorted to my room by the hotel’s security, having claimed to be police officers conducting a routine inspection.”

He refused to open the door and instead contacted Tanzanian activists and lawyers, one of whom arrived at the hotel and urged Mwangi to accompany the officers, but he declined.

“I was afraid and concerned for my life, which is why I demanded to know the identities of the individuals seeking to see me uninvited in the middle of the night,” he said.

A tearful Atuhaire sat beside him during the press conference.

In Dar, Mwangi packed his bags and called Atuhaire to keep them in her room, as he planned to check out for a later flight to Uganda.

It was during breakfast the next morning that things took a dark turn.

A visit to the restroom brought Mwangi face-to-face with about a dozen police officers, both in uniform and plain clothes, waiting at the door.

“I rushed back to my table screaming to attract attention so that my fellow activists would know I was about to be arrested.”

The officers, led by Commissioner Samwel Mahirane of the Tanzania Immigration Department, told the President of the Tanganyika Law Society, Boniface Mwabukusi, that Mwangi was not under arrest but needed for questioning.

He was whisked away to the immigration offices, interrogated about his activities in the country, recorded a statement, and had his fingerprints and photographs taken.

“They then demanded that I produce my phone and laptop. I told them I didn’t have them with me.”

Mwangi was taken back to the hotel, where CCTV footage showed Atuhaire entering his room and leaving with his bags.

He believes that is the reason behind her arrest, illegal detention, and torture.

“They said they would beat me if I did not produce the phone l used to record and post the video I had shared online during the raid. They also confiscated Agather’s phone.”

The two were taken to the immigration offices and interrogated without legal counsel, as their lawyers were denied access.

“At around 6:00pm, my lawyer received a call from the Kenyan Ambassador to Tanzania, Isaac Njenga, who asked to speak to me. He told me I would be released and deported.”

Shortly after, a state security officer entered, began referring to Mwangi as a prisoner, and assaulted him in front of Atuhaire and their lawyers.

“I later learnt that around the same time, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had been quoted as saying foreign activists from neighbouring countries should not be allowed in Tanzania because they disrupt peace.”

Uganda’s Atuhaire said it was the worst form of torture she had ever experienced.

“I have never been blindfolded before—that was the first time. What’s strange is that I always suspected this day would come, but I never imagined it would happen in Tanzania,” she said.

“I’ve lived looking over my shoulder in Uganda, where I’ve made powerful enemies because of my work. But I had done nothing in Tanzania.”

She criticised the hotel for granting the police access to their rooms and belongings.

“I’ve never seen a place where lawyers can’t say anything.”

Atuhaire added that she was questioned about her presence in the country and why she had taken Mwangi’s gadgets, though neither of them was ever informed of the charges against them.

She said the security agents seemed angered by the numerous visas in her passport.

“That’s where this whole narrative of ‘the West sent us to disrupt Tanzania’ came from.”

The two were branded as arrogant for answering back and challenging the interrogators.

Torture site

She claimed  Assistant Commissioner Faustine Jackson Mafwele called in thugs to transfer them to a torture site, boasting that he was untouchable.

Atuhaire said she was appalled to see Tanzanian MPs debating their detention in a demeaning manner in Parliament.

“For them, sexual violence is a go-to method—it’s the first thing they think of.”

At around 7:00pm, they were taken to the Central Police Station, where Mafwele accused Mwangi of helping to burn Kenya’s Parliament in 2023, labelled him a member of an outlawed gang, and threatened to rape him as the assault continued.

The officers confiscated their books and threatened the lawyers with investigations for being “unpatriotic”.

“He [Mafwele] asked me if I was circumcised. When I said yes, he said he would circumcise me again to teach me a lesson,” Mwangi said.

Mwangi and Atuhaire were driven in a heavily tinted vehicle to an undisclosed location and ordered to strip naked.

Mwangi’s hands and legs were tied with rope, and he was suspended upside down from a metal pole and beaten mercilessly, with loud music playing to drown his screams.

“When they were done beating the soles of my feet, they said, ‘weka moto’ [put fire], and someone applied lubricant to my anus before shoving objects that l have no idea what they were.”

The officers laughed as they filmed the ordeal.

“They kept asking me to wiggle my waist, say I was enjoying it, and shout, ‘Asante Mama Samia’.”

Meanwhile, Mwangi said he could hear Atuhaire screaming in another rooom.

“I also heard one of the torturers say he wanted to rape Agatha.”

They demanded access to his social media accounts and threatened harm to his wife and children if he ever spoke of the ordeal.

“I groaned in pain the entire night. I could hear Agatha suffering nearby. Any attempt to talk was met with blows. We were ordered to remain silent,” he said.

On her part, Atuhaire said she was taken to a dark room and ordered to undress.

“They forcefully stripped me. Everything.”

Just like Mwangi, she was also handcuffed, tied by her hands and legs, and suspended upside down. An object was inserted into her anus.

She said they were relieved that the attackers didn’t use their genitalia, which would have risked Sexually Transmitted Infections.

“We are alive because of East Africans.”

She thanked people across the region for the online outcry, which she believes saved their lives.

“Bonnie says his government let him down—at least they issued a statement. Mine didn’t. For the Ugandan government, it was good riddance.”

She said her condition later deteriorated. Officers gave her food and painkillers in anticipation of their release, but she refused to eat, fearing it would accelerate the process.

“I cannot describe the psychological torture. I thought we’d be thrown to animals or into the sea.”

She said she found solace in knowing their ordeal exposed what ordinary Tanzanians suffer under President Suluhu’s government.

“That gave me hope. Even if I died, it wouldn’t be in vain. The peaceful façade of Tanzania—led by a supposedly phenomenal female President—was finally exposed.”

Atuhaire said she doubted the Kenyan and Ugandan governments would seek justice for them, accusing them of complicity.

“We need to find a way of getting justice—one way or another.”

On May 20, they were woken, ordered to strip, and shower, before being bundled into separate vehicles and driven to different detention centres.

“In the early morning, they woke me, put money in my pocket, and dumped me by the roadside,” Mwangi said.

He took a boda boda to the Tanzanian border post, had his passport stamped, and crossed into Kenya.

“I called my wife. I was never legally deported but dumped at the Horohoro border near Ukunda, Kwale County, on the morning of May 22 2025,” he said

Atuhaire was abandoned at Mutukula border post the following day, Friday 23 May.