Human rights groups Tuesday asked Kenyan and Ugandan legislators to hold their governments accountable over the torture of their citizens in Tanzania.
The groups want the Tanzanian government to be held responsible for the torture on Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire.
They also want the victims to be compensated.
The groups petitioned the Kenyan and Ugandan foreign affairs ministers to explain what they did as the two suffered in Tanzania.
Hours after laying bare their ordeal – raw, real, and unforgettable – at the hands of the Tanzanian government, human rights groups demanded that those actions do not go unpunished.
They vowed to push for accountability not just on the regional stage, through the East African Community, but also back home in Kenya and Uganda, where they insist the fight for justice must begin.
“There are still avenues and other ambits that we hopefully can look at, but we’re hoping that the interventions of the other governments within the region and the petition to the EAC Parliament will be sufficient to get those officers who violated the rights of Boniface and Agather, amongst others, brought to book,” Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo said.
“We think that a private member’s bill in the two countries will be sufficient to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the two countries come and outline,” Houghton Irungu, Executive Director, Amnesty International said.
“We are not prejudicially arguing that they have done anything wrong, but they need to tell the national assemblies what they did to keep Boniface and Agather safe and secondly, what action they will take following the horrendous actions we heard yesterday.”
Those actions, the rights groups insist, must start with arrests—specifically, of the officers named by both Mwangi and Atuhaire as the architects of their torture.
But they’re not stopping there. The groups are petitioning for an East African Legislative Assembly–led parliamentary public hearing into the torture of the two, as well as seeking compensation.
According to the rights groups, the three East African countries also need to refrain from collaborating with each other to abuse the rights of their respective citizens—citing the abductions and arrests of Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi and Ugandan Kizza Besigye in Nairobi.
“We are concerned there is some sort of collusion amongst the countries to silence dissent in every way. Even now, as we speak in this country, there are particular laws being used to kill dissent,” Eric Mokaya, Executive Director, ICJ, pointed out.
The Kenyan government has also been faulted for its deafening silence over the torture of its citizens at the neighboring country’s hands.
The activists also warned President Samia Suluhu against what they termed creating a chilling climate of fear and silencing opponents ahead of the presidential election later this year.
The two activists were tortured while in captivity.
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