Tanzania : Enforced disappearance and acts of torture against Boniface Mwangi

The Observatory has been informed of the enforced disappearance, acts of torture and ill-treatment, and subsequent release of Kenyan human rights defender Mr Boniface Mwangi in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Mr Mwangi is a Pan-Africanist author, award-winning photojournalist, and pro-democracy activist based in Nairobi, Kenya.

On 18 May, Mr Mwangi was intimidated at the Serena Hotel, in Dar es Salaam, where he intended to spend the night before monitoring the treason trial of political opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Six other journalists, lawyers, and activists who also planned to observe the trial in solidarity with Mr. Lissu, were denied entry into Tanzania and deported back to Kenya – despite both Kenya and Tanzania being members of the East African Community, which guarantees the free movement of citizens within the region.

At around midnight that night, Mr Mwangi had received three phone calls from the hotel reception informing him that some police officers wanted to see him for a routine inspection. He refused to leave his room, and about 15 minutes later, armed men in civilian clothes, escorted by Serena Hotel security personnel, violently knocked on his door and threatened to take him by force. Mr Mwangi was suspicious of such a request in the middle of the night and, aware of the recurring enforced disappearances of human rights defenders in Tanzania, chose not to open his door that night. Instead, he posted on social media and lived streamed that his life was in danger and he also contacted Tanzanian activists like Boniface Mwabukusi, President of Tanganyika Law Society, who sent him lawyers.

On the morning of 19 May, during breakfast at the hotel, about a dozen men in uniform and civilian clothes arbitrarily arrested Mr Mwangi and forced him and his lawyer into the Police Commissioner Samwel Mahirane’s car and took them to Tanzania Immigration Head Office (Uhamiaji House) in Dar es Salaam, where Mr Mwangi was interrogated about his reason for being in the country. He was photographed, fingerprinted, and required to record a statement.

At around 1:30 p.m. the same day, Mr Mwangi was taken back to the Serena Hotel. The hotel management provided CCTV footage to the police showing Ugandan journalist and lawyer Ms Agather Atuhaire entering Mr Mwangi’s room to take his bag to her room as Mr Mwangi needed to check out of the hotel in the morning, but his flight was not until the evening. Ms Atuhaire’s room was searched and Mr Mwangi’s bag was found, minus his phone and laptop. Police officers then threatened to beat Mr Mwangi if he did not produce the phone he had used to post on social media the previous night.

At approximately 3 p.m, Mr Mwangi was taken back to the Immigration Head Office along with Ms Atuhaire. At around 6:00 p.m., the Kenyan Ambassador to Tanzania, H.E. Isaac Njenga, told Mr Mwangi via phone call that he would be deported to Nairobi at 8:00 p.m. However, just five minutes later, a State security officer began referring to Mr Mwangi as “mfungwa” (prisoner) and beat him in the presence of Ms Atuhaire, his lawyer and two other lawyers assigned by Boniface Mwabukusi. Around the same time, Tanzanian President publicly stated that foreign activists from neighboring countries should not be allowed in Tanzania because they disrupt peace. At approximately 7:00 p.m., Mr Mwangi and Ms Atuhaire were taken to the Central Police Station. There, Faustine Jackson Mafwele, Assistant Commissioner of Police, accused Mr Mwangi of having helped burn Kenya’s Parliament the previous year and of being a member of an illegal gang in Kenya. Faustine Jackson Mafwele also threatened to rape Ms Atuhaire. The State security officer slapped and punched Mr Mwangi while saying “You will forever remember my face, but you will never see me again.” Their three lawyers were threatened with an investigation for not being “patriotic enough” and were ordered to leave. The same State security officer said he will circumcise Mr Mwangi again to “teach him a lesson”. Both Mr. Mwangi and Ms Atuhaire were subjected to continued beatings and verbal insults.

At around 8:00 p.m., they were both forcibly disappeared handcuffed and blindfolded, and taken to a white Toyota Land Cruiser with tinted windows. In the back of the vehicle were batons, guns and many license plates. The men in the car, smelling of alcohol, drove for around 30 minutes to a compound. At this undisclosed location, Mr Mwangi was ordered to undress completely. Four men tied him upside down to a metal pole where they started hitting the soles of his feet with a wooden plank while playing gospel music at full blast on the car’s radio and stuffed his underwear in his mouth to drown out his screams. Then the men said, “Weka moto” (“set fire” in Swahili), applied lubricant on his anus and shoved unknown objects. He was repeatedly asked to wiggle his waist and say he was enjoying himself and shout “Asante Mama Samia” (“thank you to the President of Tanzania” in Swahili). While raping him, they interrogated him, forced him to reveal his children’s names, place of work and residence, email and social media passwords, and threatened to release the video of his rape, murder him and his family if he dared to speak publicly about his acts of torture. Next door, he could hear the screams of Ms Atuhaire. One of the torturers declare that he wanted to rape her as well. One of them told Mr Mwangi to get dressed, and they left him on the cold floor of the compound the entire night.

On 20 May, Mr Mwangi was once again ordered to undress completely and take a shower while a man in civilian clothing armed with an AK-47 rifle was watching him. Due to the extreme pain in his body, Mr Mwangi was unable to walk and had to crawl to the bathroom. The armed man commented how Mr Mwangi had blood in his stool. Mr Mwangi was then blindfolded and handcuffed before being led to a white Toyota Land Cruiser, where another man armed with an AK-47 guarded him. They drove for many hours and Mr Mwangi had to urinate into a bottle in the car as he was not permitted to take bathroom breaks. He was then dumped in a room at an undisclosed place where he was given a soda and a loaf of bread to eat, still blindfolded and handcuffed, while the men kept verbally harassing him.

On 21 May, Mr Mwangi spent the day blindfolded and handcuffed, still at the same undisclosed place. Mr Mwangi was given tea and a mandazi (a fried bread). That afternoon, the attitude of the men began to change. They said they would release him with an “Onyo Kali” (“severe warning” in Swahili) but warned he must never set foot back in Tanzania again, or they would kill him. They made him exercise to walk properly, even though his feet were swollen and walking was painful. They asked him what he wanted for lunch, encouraged him to eat, and gave him painkillers. Although he was given his first proper meal in three days, he could not eat it due to lack of appetite.

On the early morning of 22 May, the men gave him 20,000 Tanzanian Shillings (8.50 USD) and 400 Kenyan Shillings (2.90 USD) before dumping him by the roadside. A boda boda (motorcycle taxi) waiting for him dropped Mr Mwangi a few meters away from the Horohoro border post near Ukunda, Kwale County, between Tanzania and Kenya. Mr Mwangi paid someone to cross the border into Kenya. Ms Atuhaire was released on 23 May.

At the date of publication of this urgent alert, Mr Mwangi continues to suffer severe physical and mental pain resulting from his arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and multiple acts of torture inflicted each day. He has multiple fractures on both feet, several broken toes, other wounds in his body and emotional distress and trauma.

The Observatory strongly condemns the enforced disappearance and acts of torture against both Mr Boniface Mwangi and Ms Agather Atuhaire. These violations were also recently condemned by United Nations experts in a joint press release on 13 June, 2025.

The Observatory calls on the Tanzanian authorities to carry out an immediate, thorough, and impartial investigations into the enforced disappearance and acts of torture and ill-treatment committed against Mr Boniface Mwangi and Ms Agather Atuhaire, immediately suspend the suspected perpetrators from duty while investigations are carried out, bring the perpetrators to justice, and ensure the right to reparation for Mr Boniface Mwangi and Ms Agather Atuhaire, in accordance with Article 14 (right to life), 15 (freedom of movement), 16 (protection against torture and ill-treatments), and 19 (right to human dignity) of the Tanzanian Constitution, with the right not to be subjected to torture and the right to reparation under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Article 5 and 26) and under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 7 and 2(3)).

The Observatory urges the Tanzanian authorities to immediately put an end to their pattern of arbitrary arrests, harassment, abductions, enforced disappearances and torture- qualified by United Nations experts as tools of repression to silence human rights defenders and journalists in the country. Since 2019, these experts have recorded over 200 cases of enforced disappearance in Tanzania. The Observatory further calls on the Tanzanian authorities to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders, allowing them to exercise their fundamental rights, such as freedom of movement, peaceful assembly, and expression, and to carry out their legitimate activities effectively and independently without fear of reprisals, in line with the recommendations made to Tanzania during its Universal periodic review (UPR) in 2021.

In the absence of such actions by the Tanzanian authorities, the Observatory urges the Government of Kenya to protect Mr Boniface Mwangi from any form of transnational repression he may face from Tanzania, and to refer his case to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to shed light on his enforced disappearance and the acts of torture committed against him.