Kampala, Uganda — Ugandan activist and journalist Agather Atuhaire has alleged that she was raped and tortured while in detention in Tanzania after she was arrested alongside Kenyan photojournalist Boniface Mwangi. The two had traveled to Tanzania in solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who appeared in court on treason charges on Monday.
Atuhaire told the BBC that while in detention, she was blindfolded by men in plain clothes, violently struck, stripped, and sexually assaulted. “The pain was too much,” she said, showing the news outlet a mark left by handcuffs. She also claimed that her screams were so intense her captors had to cover her mouth.
She further stated that she heard Mwangi being threatened with forced circumcision. “They tortured us and asked us to strip naked to go bathe. We couldn’t walk, and they told us to crawl and go wash off the blood,” Mwangi later recounted in a post on social media platform X.
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The pair were denied entry to the courtroom despite being permitted into the country and were subsequently arrested by Tanzanian authorities. President Samia Suluhu Hassan had earlier warned that foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in Tanzanian affairs or cause unrest.
Atuhaire was eventually found on Thursday night, abandoned at the Tanzania-Uganda border. Her return was confirmed by the Agora Centre for Research, a Ugandan rights organization, and the Ugandan High Commissioner to Tanzania, Fred Mwesigye, who said she had “safely returned home” and had been reunited with her family.
Mwangi was also discovered abandoned near the Tanzanian-Kenyan border and recounted the ordeal, stating they were moved in separate vehicles after being tortured. He alleged that their treatment was ordered by Tanzanian state security officials who told their captors to give the pair “Tanzanian treatment.”
As of now, Tanzanian authorities have not issued a public response to the claims.