Martha Karua deported to Kenya after detention in Tanzania

People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua on Sunday said she was denied entry to Tanzania and deported to Kenya. 

In a social media post on Sunday morning, Karua said she, alongside Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Council member Gloria Kimani and member of the Pan-African Progressive Leaders Solidarity Network Lynn Ngugi, were detained at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. 

“I have been denied entry into Tanzania and I and two colleagues are awaiting deportation at Mwalimu Nyerere International Airport Dar es Salaam,” Karua wrote in a post on X. 

Later, in a 2:58 p.m. post on the social media platform, the former Kenyan justice minister said she was put on a Kenya Airways flight back to Nairobi, where she landed some minutes past 4 p.m.

The three were headed to Tanzania at the invitation of the East Africa Law Society. 

According to Karua, she arrived in Tanzania at 9.00 a.m., and an immigration official at the airport referred her passport to the supervisor. 

The said supervisor kept her waiting for an hour as she “consulted her superiors”, who later denied her entry to Tanzania. 

“I am concerned that as a citizen of @jumuiya my access within @jumuiya country appears inexplicably restricted,” Karua added, referring to the East African Community. 

The Kenyan Senior Counsel says the denial of entry is linked to her interest in the case against Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

The Chadema party chairman was on April 10 charged with treason after his arrest at a public rally where he called for electoral reforms. 

Karua has since led a pan-African rights lobby group seeking the release of Lissu and the dropping of the politically motivated charges against him. 

Karua, Ngugi and Kimani were set to observe a hearing related to the case against Lissu, scheduled for Monday, May 19, at the Kisutu Magistrates' Court.

'SHAMEFUL' ACTION

In a statement, Karua’s PLP termed the trio’s “disgraceful” deportation “not only an affront to their personal dignity and fundamental freedoms but also a blatant violation of the principles of the East African Community.”

“That a prominent East African stateswoman can be treated in this manner, without due process or cause, is a stain on the integrity of regional cooperation,” the party said.

It added: “This shameful action by President Samia Suluhu's regime reflects a deep-seated fear of democratic scrutiny and the retrogressive entrenchment of authoritarian rule in Tanzania.”

The Kenyan chapter of the rights group Amnesty International said the act “undermines the fundamental right to a fair and public hearing enshrined in international human rights law.”

“It simultaneously erodes international public trust in Tanzania’s electoral and judicial processes. We demand their release and access to observe trial this week,” said Irũngũ Houghton, its executive director.

Similarly, the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) expressed “deep shock” and condemned the trial observers’ deportation.

“The right to observe public criminal trials is enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights read with the Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Assistance in Africa,” the continental lawyers’ body said in a statement.

The organization said Karua has previously appeared to observe Lissu’s May 24 and 25 trial without any obstruction.

“PALU urges the Tanzanian authorities to urgently speak up, apologise for the unlawful detention and deportation processes, and make reparations to the three East Africans, including providing guarantees of their freedom of movement as they proceed to observe the trial of Tundu Lissu and any other trial they may wish to observe,” it added.