Kenya’s foreign minister told AFP on Thursday that Tanzanian authorities had released a prominent activist, who rights groups said had been “held incommunicado” since Monday in the east African country.Boniface Mwangi was among activists who travelled to Tanzania’s economic capital Dar es Salaam to show solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu during his court appearance over charges of treason.However, Mwangi was detained on Monday, with Amnesty International saying he had been “held incommunicado by military officers”. Another activist, Ugandan Agatha Atuhaire, was also detained.On Thursday Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi told AFP that Mwangi had been released by Tanzanian authorities.”We have been engaged diplomatically and that is how it is done,” he said, without giving further details.Local outlet Daily Nation, citing his family, reported Mwangi had been deported by road and abandoned in a coastal town, near Tanzania’s northern border.”We were both treated worse than dogs, chained, blindfolded and underwent a very gruesome torture,” Mwangi said on his return to the the Kenyan capital Nairobi.Addressing reporters outside a Nairobi airport, he said they had both been “handcuffed and blindfolded” since Monday. “The situation in Tanzania is very bad, I think what happened to us is what happens to all Tanzanian activists.”Earlier his wife, Njeri, told AFP she was with him, “but he is injured, his feet are swollen”.- ‘No idea where she is’ -There had been a growing outcry in Kenya over his detention. Some 20 NGOs had called on the government to press for his “immediate and unconditional release”.AFP was unable to determine if Atuhaire, who was detained along with Mwangi, had also been released.”At this moment, we have no idea where Agatha is, and we hope that she’s safe and she’ll be back home with her family,” Mwangi said at the airport.Hussein Khalid, head of rights group Vocal Africa, said the two had undergone “very severe” torture and they were very concerned about Atuhaire.”We believe that she must be in a very bad place, and we demand that she be returned back to her home,” he told reporters.Uganda’s high commissioner to Tanzania Fred Mwesigye told AFP he had contacted officials over her status, asking authorities “to allow our mission staff to visit and talk to her to know if there are possibilities of her release and return to Uganda”. He said they had not had a response from the government.Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said earlier this week foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in the country’s affairs.She urged security services “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here”.Activists say the events in Tanzania — due to hold national elections later this year — are part of a wider erosion of democracy across east Africa.In Uganda, opposition leader Kizza Besigye is also on trial for treason after having been kidnapped in Kenya and taken across the border.
