NAIROBI (Reuters) -Several Kenyan rights activists including a former justice minister said they were denied entry to Tanzania over the weekend as they travelled to attend the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack and came second in the last presidential poll, was charged with treason last month over what prosecutors said was a speech calling upon the public to rebel and disrupt elections due in October.
A recent string of high-profile arrests has thrust the rights record of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who plans to seek reelection, into the spotlight. Hassan says the government is committed to respecting human rights.
Lissu’s CHADEMA party has demanded significant changes to an electoral process they say favours the ruling party before they participate in the ballot.
Lissu appeared in court for the first time since his arrest on Monday morning, with his fist raised in the air as supporters chanted “No Reforms, No Election,” according to a video of the courtroom shared by CHADEMA on X.
“We will reach there… we will be fine. You should not fear,” Lissu said as he took his seat.
Kenya’s former Justice Minister Martha Karua, a prominent lawyer and opposition politician, and at least two others were detained when they landed at Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam and sent back to Nairobi, they said on X.
Tanzania’s immigration spokesperson Paul Mselle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Today was going to be a big day and we went out there in solidarity,” Karua told local broadcast NTV on Monday.
“The state can not be used as a personal tool. You can not deport people whom you don’t like, who are not aligned to your views.”
Kenya’s former Justice Minister Willy Mutunga and two other activists were detained at Julius Nyerere airport on Monday, they said on X.
(Reporting by Hereward HollandEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
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