Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna wants President William Ruto to ditch conciliation and slap tough counter-measures on Tanzania over the alleged torture and deportation of activists Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire.
In a social-media broadside, Sifuna said Kenya should bar Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) leadership from entering the country and yank the 2025 East Africa Law Society conference out of Zanzibar.
Next on his list: pull Kenya out of the joint 2027 Africa Cup of Nations hosting deal with Tanzania and Uganda, a partnership officials had trumpeted as a regional milestone.
“Withdraw that fake apology and demand that Tanzania apologize to us instead,” Sifuna declared, urging Ruto to demand a formal apology from Dar es Salaam for the activists’ treatment.
Ruto’s original olive branch came during the National Prayer Breakfast on May 28. “Our neighbors from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us,” he said, extending the same sentiment to Uganda.
Rights groups are pressing for more than words. Amnesty International Kenya’s executive director Houghton Irungu told lawmakers, “We think that a private member’s bill in the two countries will be sufficient to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… outline what they did to keep Boniface and Agather safe and… what action they will take following the horrendous actions we heard yesterday.”
Mwangi and Atuhaire say they were arrested, assaulted, and forced out of Tanzania late last month while monitoring a politically charged trial.
A tearful Mwangi on Monday in a press conference, revealed the barbaric sexual assault he underwent under the Tanzanian police, and with instructions from President Samia Suluhu.
Their claims have inflamed public opinion and piled pressure on regional governments to act.
