KAMPALA, UGANDA — Agather Atuhaire, a journalist and human rights activist, traveled to Tanzania in May to observe the trial of Tundu Lissu, a Tanzanian opposition leader accused of treason by the government.
But a day after her arrival, she claims that men posing as state agents kidnapped her from her hotel room. They beat her for days until her feet swelled, she said, then four days later they abandoned her near the Tanzania-Uganda border.
Kenyan activists, including presidential candidate Boniface Mwangi, who also traveled to observe the trial, said they were also detained, tortured and deported.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who critics say has suppressed opposition, defended the expulsions, saying foreign observers at the trial were interfering in the country’s affairs.
But critics say the kidnappings and deportations not only violate several protections — including Tanzania’s Constitution and the East African Community Treaty allowing freedom of movement — but demonstrate coordinated efforts by governments across the region to stifle dissent. In a press interview, Martha Karua, a prominent Kenyan politician and former presidential candidate who was also expelled while trying to attend the hearing, said it demonstrated “regional collaboration in the oppression of citizens.”
For Atuhaire, who has previously been threatened for speaking out against the Ugandan government, what signals coordination between governments is her own silence. “(The Ugandan government) has never said anything about my detention or torture upon my return, and yet they say they care about their people,” Atuhaire says.
The Global Press Journal contacted Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but received no response.
Governments in the region have been criticized in the past for transnational repression, that is, their actions aimed at silencing dissent from their own citizens abroad. According to Human Rights Watch, this takes various forms and sometimes leads to the illegal expulsion of a person from another country, sometimes with the cooperation of the host country.
Last January, Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a critic of her country’s government, was kidnapped across the border in Nairobi. Rights groups including Amnesty International have linked the incident to the Tanzanian government.
And in November 2024, Ugandan opposition figure and former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye was arrested in his Nairobi hotel room with other members of his opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change. Besigye later reappeared before a military court in Uganda. He was charged with possession of firearms and other offenses.
In a media interview after the arrests, Chris Baryomunsi, Uganda’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology and National Guidance, said Kenya contributed to the arrest. At first, Kenyan authorities denied any involvement, then admitted it.
A 2024 report by Human Rights Watch also documented other cases in the eight partner states that make up the East African Community. In the report, they highlight the alleged killing of a Rwandan citizen while in Uganda and the possible involvement of the Rwandan government. Their report also highlights the kidnapping in Nairobi of two South Sudanese critics of their government, with the alleged involvement of the South Sudan National Security Service.
A long history
In Uganda, this type of cross-border repression has a long history, dating back to the country’s post-independence period in the 1960s and 1970s, says Rogers Barigayomwe, professor of politics and law at Kampala International University. He claims that during this period, critics of former presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin often fled to Kenya, believing the country to be safe.
“But this was not always the case, as some were kidnapped in Kenya by Amin’s security forces,” says Barigayomwe.
In a report on transnational repression by Freedom House, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, the Ugandan government was listed as a major perpetrator of this repression in 2024, alongside the governments of Cambodia, Russia and China.
The report, based on data collected from 2014 to 2024, documented 1,219 direct physical incidents of transnational repression committed by 48 governments.
These include 73 incidents in 2024 in which three or more people were targeted at once. The largest involved 36 Ugandan activists who were arrested in Kenya by Kenyan authorities and forcibly returned to Uganda where they were accused of “receiving terrorist training” for participating in a civil society workshop, according to the Freedom House report.
Fear of influence
Coordination between governments to suppress dissent is particularly worrying as regional countries like Uganda and Tanzania prepare for elections, says Timothy Kalyegira, a political analyst and journalist.
“There is growing nervousness and fear caused by those who question the political legitimacy of leaders during the election period,” says Kalyegira.
Governments are concerned about collaboration between activists in the region, he adds. For example, during the arrests and expulsions of Ugandan and Tanzanian activists from Kenya, he says, governments “fear that the youth uprising in Kenya will spread to their countries, so the only way to silence these voices is through kidnapping and torture.”
Barigayomwe says that during the election period, political tensions are high and criticism becomes more pronounced, hence the increase in these cases. Governments fear that links between activists in the region will amplify opposition, he says.
A good example, he says, is the case of Besigye, the opposition leader in Uganda who ran against President Yoweri Museveni four times and remains on trial since his arrest in Kenya.
Besigye’s trip to Kenya is not something Museveni takes lightly, Barigayomwe says, especially given growing citizen opposition to the Kenyan government, which has defined Kenya’s political environment in recent years.
“It can mobilize widely and cause a revolution, and that is terrifying for the president who follows what the Genz are doing in Kenya (and) what the Arab Spring did,” he said.
Kill hope
Governments are also trying to kill hope and sow fear, says Kato Tumusiime, a human rights lawyer at Kiiza and Mugisha Advocates.
Kidnappings like Besigye’s spark fear among young people who admire the opposition leader and share his desire to challenge power in Uganda, Tumusiime says.
Tumusiime was among those who traveled to Tanzania to observe the Tundu Lissu hearing in May, alongside Atuhaire. Unlike Atuhaire, he attended the hearing and returned to Uganda without incident.
Yet, he says, “I am now afraid to return to Tanzania because I fear having been considered an enemy of the state since I had dinner and lunch with Atuhaire and other human rights defenders on the day of his arrest.” »
What these governments are doing, Tumusiime says, is contrary to freedom of movement laws under the East African Community Treaty and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The East African Community Treaty guarantees citizens of partner states freedom of entry, stay and exit without restrictions. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights also guarantees freedom of movement and residence within the borders of a state, provided that citizens respect the laws of the country.
While there are protections, James Kakooza, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly representing Uganda, says this free movement does not give any Ugandan the right to interfere with a country’s sovereignty.
“People who say they have been repressed and tortured should respect the laws of the neighboring countries they are visiting and nothing will happen to them. Don’t interfere in their politics, don’t interfere with their security,” he said, adding that the activists who had gone to Tanzania to observe the treason case were showing support for Tanzania’s opposition leader, which is “political.”
But Atuhaire and Tumusiime deny that their presence in Tanzania amounts to interference in Tanzanian politics, saying they were only there to show support for another activist.
For Atuhaire, the work is not finished. “What happened to me in Tanzania made me stronger,” she says. “I am not afraid. I will return to Tanzania in solidarity with other human rights defenders when the time comes.”
