Activists to Mudavadi: If anything happens to Boniface Mwangi we’ll hold you responsible

Prominent Kenyan human rights activists have issued a direct warning to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi over the detention of activist Boniface Mwangi in Tanzania, claiming complicity by the Kenyan government and calling for his immediate release.

Speaking outside the Tanzania High Commission in Nairobi on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, during a peaceful protest, activist Hussein Khalid pointed fingers at both the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments, alleging collaboration to prevent Mwangi’s return to Kenya.

“As I am here today, we believe that the government of Kenya and the government of Tanzania are working together to deny Boniface Mwangi his right to return to Kenya and to his family,” Khalid said.

Khalid further responded to remarks made by Mudavadi earlier in the week and warned that activists would hold the Prime Cabinet Secretary, who also serves as Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary, personally responsible if anything were to happen to Mwangi.

“The two governments are working together, that is why yesterday the minister for Foreign Affairs was justifying the excessive use of force, the disappearance of Boniface Mwangi. And we are telling Mudavadi, if anything happens to Boniface Mwangi, we, his friends, the family and Kenyans in general will hold you Mudavadi personally responsible because what you are doing justifying the disappearance of Kenyan in a foreign land has absolutely no justification,” he warned.

Khalid insisted that if Mwangi had committed an offence, the proper legal channels should be followed. He decried the activist’s continued detention without trial as indicative of broader authoritarian trends across the East African region.

“In the event, because we believe he has not committed any offence, in the event that he has committed an offence, then he must have a right to lawyers, he must have a right to his family. Why are the government of Kenya and the government of Tanzania treating this matter with disdain? We are telling the government of Kenya and the government of Tanzania that this case of Boniface Mwangi is testimony to the authoritarianism that is currently creeping and finding its way within the East African region and as human rights practitioners, we will not allow that to happen,” he said.

Khalid concluded with a firm demand for Mwangi’s immediate and unconditional release.

“We want Boniface Mwangi returned to his family and we want that done now sio kesho, we want Boniface Mwangi arudishwe sasa,” he said.

Mudavadi’s remarks

On Tuesday night, May 20, 2025, Mudavadi addressed Mwangi’s situation during a televised interview, revealing that the activist was in the custody of Tanzanian authorities and that the Kenyan embassy in Dar es Salaam was engaging the matter.

“Boniface Mwangi is in Tanzania, and I have been in touch with the Kenyan mission there. He is being held by the authorities, and we hope that he will be released. Our embassy is in touch with him as well in terms of trying to figure out how he can be helped so that he can find his way back home,” Mudavadi said.

Mudavadi suggested that Mwangi and other activists had arrived in Tanzania during a politically sensitive time, coinciding with the country’s electioneering period. He indicated that their presence and interest in a political case may have been perceived as interference by the Tanzanian administration.

He also noted that the Kenyan government was considering diplomatic channels to address the matter.

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