Kenyan and Ugandan Activists Speak Out About ‘Sexual Torture’ By Tanzanian Authorities

Two activists from Kenya and Uganda became emotional while recounting the alleged “sexual torture” they suffered at the hands of Tanzanian security forces.

Kenyan human rights advocate Boniface Mwangi and award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire spoke out during a June 2 press conference in Nairobi, detailing the alleged physical and sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Tanzanian security officers while in custody, France24 reports. The two activists traveled to Tanzania’s economic capital, Dar es Salaam, to attend the May 19, 2025, court appearance of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who faces a potential death sentence in a high-profile treason trial ahead of the country’s October elections.

While there, the activists say they were abducted from their hotel room, blindfolded, and brought to a house where interrogators questioned Mwangi about the whereabouts of his phone and laptop. Mwangi recalled being stripped naked, hung upside down, and beaten on the soles of his feet.

“They take you through sexual torture, and tell you if you speak, you’re going to be reported to your family and all that,” Mwangi said.

“And what they did to us is, it breaks me. Then they started beating my feet… I was screaming so hard. I couldn’t breathe. There were no tears coming out because of how painful it was.”

Atuhaire said she was also blindfolded, bound, and subjected to similar abuse. Mwangi broke down in tears while describing the alleged sexual assault Tanzanian authorities forced on him.

“They would put objects in my anus and then say, ‘say you’re feeling nice, say you’re feeling good’. Then they would say, ‘say asante (thank you in Swahili) Samia, asante Samia’, so I say asante to their president,” he said.

Both activists were eventually abandoned near their respective country borders, where they made their way back home.

“We’re here to share our story, and to say that our bodies may be broken, but our spirit is strong,” Mwangi said.

Opposition leaders, human rights groups, and the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs have cited Mwangi and Atuhaire’s case in accusing Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan of following the same authoritarian path as her predecessor, John Magufuli. Hassan, who took office in 2021, initially received praise for rolling back some of the political repression seen under Magufuli, but has since faced growing backlash over arrests and mysterious abductions targeting government critics.

Lissu is among the most high-profile cases of alleged attacks on political opponents involving Hassan. He came in second in Tanzania’s last presidential election. But he was arrested in April and charged with treason after prosecutors accused him of calling for public rebellion in a speech.

His trial and the activists’ reported assaults have underscored what many see as a renewed clampdown ahead of the October election, in which Hassan has been nominated as her party’s candidate. The alleged sexual assault of the two activists came just after Hassan accused foreign activists of trying to “intrude and interfere” in Tanzania’s internal affairs, comments that drew international concern. On the same day the activists were abducted, she also urged security forces “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”