Tanzanian Rights Activist Rescued in Kenya Before Being Smuggled Across Border, Amnesty Says

Kathmandu. Amnesty International said on Monday that a Tanzanian human rights defender was rescued in Kenya before being taken across the border.

Human rights defender Mashabaha Mashabaha Hamza is considered one of the staunchest critics of the violent crackdown by Tanzanian security forces during the October elections.

According to opposition and rights groups, the human rights organization stated that approximately two people were killed during the security operation, which also involved internet shutdowns. The government has yet to release a report providing factual details about the crackdown.

Amnesty stated that Hamza, who has been in exile in Kenya for nearly four years, was rescued on Sunday while being abducted by three individuals who tied him up in a car and attempted to drive away.

The rights group said that Hamza resisted his attackers and was later found 'drugged and injured' in Lukenya, Machakos County, about an hour outside the capital Nairobi, where he was dumped.

According to Amnesty, the police reacted 'immediately' and stopped the vehicle of the alleged two Kenyan and one Tanzanian abductors.

Amnesty told AFP, "The suspects were promised money to transport Hamza from Kenya to the Tanzanian border."

The attack was a violent and premeditated abduction, staged to look like a forced handover to an unknown group by Tanzania.

"(Hamza's) work documenting human rights violations is a major threat to the Tanzanian government," said Mwanasi Ahmed, coordinator of the African Solidarity Network (ASON), the rights group Hamza is a member of.

"We have seen a lot of cross-border repression," Ahmed added.

The Tanzanian Information Minister declined to comment when asked by AFP about the incident, as did the Kenyan police and the Interior Ministry.

Amnesty had previously warned of a 'growing and worrying trend of transnational repression' in East Africa. Kenya had been accused of allowing foreign governments to abduct its citizens and forcibly extradite them in violation of international law.

In November 2024, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was abducted in Kenya and taken to a military court in Uganda, where he is facing charges of treason. In January 2025, prominent Tanzanian rights activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai was abducted on the streets of Nairobi but was released following swift intervention by rights groups. The incident caused an uproar in the media.

Other Kenyan activists in Uganda and Tanzania have also been abducted and later released at the border.