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A Kenyan activist told the BBC that he “worked to live” after he was allegedly sexually tortured in Tanzania last month.
Boniface Mwangi said that despite being “shamed and introverted to all kinds of things”, he decided to speak.
Mwanji said he went to the country to be detained in Tanzania after expressing solidarity with the detained opposition politician Tundu Lissu.
At a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Mwangi claimed in tears that he was exposed, turned upside down, hit by his feet, beaten under his feet and sexually assaulted while in custody.
Police chief in Dar Es Salaam, a major city in Tanzania, raised questions about Mwangi’s account and told the BBC that they were “opinions” and “rumors” of activists.
Jumanne Muliro told the BBC: “If they were here, I would interact with them, I would ask them what they were saying, what they mean… Legally, these things are called rumors or hearsay evidence.”
He said Mwangi should report an investigation to the authorities.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has been accused by rights groups and has become increasingly repressed in October’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Regional rights groups have called for an investigation, and Amnesty International said Tanzanian authorities should bear the responsibility for those responsible for “inhumane” treatment.
Mwange said he was held by Tanzanian authorities with Ugandan activist Atuhaire for several days, who also spoke about being detained and raped earlier.
She attended a press conference in Nairobi on Monday, where Mwangi described his sexual assault.
He said his torturers would sexually assault him and told him to say “Asante” to their president (thanks to Swahili Language).
Mwangi added that the officer told him they were filming everything and that if he talked about his experience, he would leak the video.
Mwangi told the BBC Newsday plan that torture has put him in mental pain.
He said: “You have a lot of nightmares, you have a lot of thoughts, you are alone in the darkness, you think you will be killed. Such a mentally painful life.”
Mwanger said he wanted to make his medical records public so that “what happened to me will never happen to anyone else”.
“I have wounds on my body, wounds on my private parts, wounds on my feet, my toes, I have fractures… so I’m still struggling.”
Mwangi and Atuhaire were several activists who traveled to Tanzania two weeks ago, united with Lissu, who appeared in court on charges of treason.
He has been demanding a comprehensive change, saying the current law does not allow for free and impartial polls, which the government denies.
Lissu, arrested on April 9, called for “no reforms, no elections.”
Mwangi told the BBC that their visit to Tanzania was to highlight Lissu’s “fake case” and added that the authorities “had not been easy”.
President Hassan warned at the time that she would not allow militants from neighboring countries to “intervent” in Tanzanian affairs.
Mwangi and Atuhaire’s whereabouts are unclear in the face of being held, sparking widespread condemnation.
Mwanji said his “kidnapping” was shocking because of his craze he picked out from a very outstanding hotel.
“So, being kidnapped in the range of daytime, never knowing where I am and I am still tortured, which means the Tanzanian government doesn’t care about what people think about it.”
Earlier, Atuhaire said that although Uganda is “very authoritarian”, she did not expect that she “will find a worse foreign country, a worse government”.
Mwange said their experience shows how “how broken” countries are in East Africa.
“So, it makes me more like the Pan African in this battle,” he told the BBC.
The US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs has previously stated that reports of abuse by the two radicals are very concerned, noting that Atuhaire has been “became an international courage winner in 2024” by the department.
Other militants, including former Kenya Attorney General Martha Karua and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, were blocked from entering and expelled from Dar Dar Dar es Salaam International Airport.
Other reports by Munira Hussein in Dar es Salaam.
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