Questions Grow Over Boniface Mwangi’s Arrest in Tanzania

• May 21, 2025

Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi was arrested in Tanzania on Monday, May 19, 2025, alongside Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, after traveling to Dar es Salaam to attend a court session involving opposition figure Tundu Lissu. Their detention has sparked speculation and fears of a deeper political agenda, including concerns over a possible asylum exchange between Kenya and Tanzania.

Online platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), were flooded with speculation on Tuesday and Wednesday, suggesting Mwangi’s arrest might be linked to past secretive agreements between the two countries. These agreements reportedly allow for the exchange of asylum seekers, raising concerns that Nairobi could be complicit in Mwangi’s detention.

Tensions grew further due to the 2022 remarks by Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Dan Kazungu, who confirmed the existence of a prisoner exchange deal between the two countries. He said it would allow Kenyan prisoners in Tanzania to serve their sentences back home, reflecting close ties between the two governments.

Mwangi’s wife, Njeri Mwangi, called the arrest a form of targeted harassment. She questioned why her husband was singled out from many other observers who had also traveled to witness the court proceedings in Tanzania. “They were not there illegally,” she said, adding that it was suspicious that only Mwangi was detained.

Historical parallels have also been drawn to 1982, when Kenya and Tanzania cooperated to return failed coup plotters back to Kenya after they had fled across the border. The current situation has stirred fears of a similar exchange.

On Wednesday, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi confirmed that Mwangi was still being held in Tanzania, denying earlier reports that he had already been deported. He said the Kenyan government was monitoring the situation through its embassy in Tanzania.

Mudavadi added that Tanzania had not given Kenya a clear reason for the arrest but acknowledged that Mwangi and others may have “rattled” the Tanzanian government by attending a sensitive court case. He emphasized that the issue would be handled diplomatically and urged Kenyans to recognize that freedoms in one country may not apply in another.

Meanwhile, activists remain wary. Though none could confirm if Mwangi’s detention is part of a larger political deal, they are not ruling out the possibility. One activist warned, “Anything is possible.”