Martha Karua, a prominent lawyer and former Justice Minister of Kenya, has reported her deportation from Tanzania, which she believes was intended to obstruct her attendance at the court proceedings involving opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
Alongside her, two colleagues who traveled from Kenya were also detained and subsequently deported.
Notably, former Chief Justice of Kenya, Willy Mutunga, along with other notable human rights advocates, faced similar treatment upon their arrival in Tanzania for Lissu’s case, being stopped and held at the airport without any comment from Tanzanian officials.
Lissu, the head of the Chadema party, is set to appear in court on Monday after being charged with treason last month.
In response to these events, Korir Sing’oei, Kenya’s foreign affairs chief, has called on Tanzanian authorities to release Mutunga and his team.
Karua, known for her advocacy for human rights and her criticism of what she perceives as a decline in democracy in East Africa, has also been involved in representing Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was forcibly returned to Uganda from Kenya to face similar treason charges, which he claims are politically motivated.
Karua’s political career includes her tenure as Kenya’s Justice Minister from 2005 to 2009 and her role as the running mate of Raila Odinga during the unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2022.
Earlier this year, she established her own opposition party, the People’s Liberation Party (PLP).
The PLP reported that she, along with fellow Kenyan attorney Gloria Kimani and human rights advocate Lynn Ngugi, endured ‘hours of unwarranted interrogation’ before being deported.
In response to this incident, Chadema’s general secretary John Mnyika condemned the actions, stating, ‘The solution to concealing the embarrassment of a fabricated treason case is not to detain foreign lawyers, but to dismiss the case entirely.’
The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition expressed its shock at what it termed ‘arbitrary arrests,’ noting that Karua had been permitted entry into Tanzania to observe the court proceedings during Lissu’s appearance on April 15.
The former chief justice of Kenya traveled with lawyer Hussein Khalid and Hanifa Adan, a key figure in last year’s youth-led Gen Z protests.
