Boniface Mwangi speaks on alleged torture in Tanzania: 'I have gone through four very dark days'

Activist Boniface Mwangi has spoken publicly for the first time after being arrested, detained and allegedly tortured by Tanzanian authorities for nearly a week.

Mwangi was on Tuesday arrested at his hotel in Tanzania, where he had gone to show solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu during his court appearance on Monday.

He was held incommunicado until Thursday when he was driven to the Kenya-Tanzania border in Horohoro and reportedly dumped.

Looking frail and visibly shaken, Mwangi addressed the press while inside a vehicle at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa, from where he was scheduled to be flown to Nairobi for medical attention.

He recounted a harrowing ordeal that he says has left him unable to walk unaided and deeply worried for Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, with whom he was arrested and detained, and who is still missing.

“I have gone through four very dark days, I have been tortured very badly, I can barely walk,” Mwangi told journalists, his voice subdued but firm.

“But I am very concerned about Agather because we were tortured together, and they did very horrible things to us. So, I hope Agather is safe.”

Agather was reportedly separated from Mwangi during their detention in Tanzania. Her whereabouts remain unknown, fuelling growing fears for her safety.

“They were separated, and we don’t know where Agather is, or where she was taken,” said Njeri Mwangi, Boniface’s wife.

“Bonnie was dropped at Horohoro borderpost and he found his way upto Lungalunga and got transport and I called Khelef (Khalifa) and he picked him up.”

Mwangi and those close to him allege that Tanzanian authorities orchestrated the ordeal with cruelty and political motive, subjecting him to physical and psychological abuse while invoking the name of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

According to activist Hussein Khalid, Mwangi’s experience is part of a larger, more troubling trend in the region.

“It’s very clear that in East Africa we’re seeing the rise and rise of authoritarians, and we don’t take this lightly,” Khalid said.

“Boniface Mwangi was severely tortured, as we speak presently we don’t know where Agather is. We want to rush Boniface to get medical treatment, his condition is not good at all, he can barely walk.”

Khalid laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Tanzanian government, directly linking the abuse to the country’s highest office.

“This is courtesy of Mama Samia’s government. He was badly tortured in Tanzania, and every time they were doing this, they kept making reference to the President… asking him to say ‘Asante Mama Samia’ as they were torturing him. These people were brutal, and we will not take this lightly.”

Khalid further suggested that Kenyan authorities may have played a complicit role in the abduction and torture of Mwangi, warning that failure to act would trigger international consequences.

“Rest assured that we will take action. If the Kenyan government, which we believe was complicit, does not do anything… if (Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia) Mudavadi does not do anything… then we will invoke the international community to make sure that action is taken because he knows those officers and they can be identified,” he said.