Tanzanian activist, Maria Sarungi Tsehai released after allegedly being ‘kidnapped’ in Kenya’s capital

A prominent Tanzanian activist has been released after she was taken away by three armed men on the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, her husband said, accusing Tanzania’s national intelligence service of responsibility.

Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a human rights defender critical of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, was allegedly kidnapped on Sunday, January 12,  by three armed men and taken into a black car in the Kilimani neighbourhood on Sunday afternoon, Amnesty International said.

“I am now safe, many thanks to everyone,” Sarungi Tsehai wrote on X several hours later.

Her brief detention comes as the governments of both Tanzania and Kenya stand accused of abducting critics.

Sarungi Tsehai’s husband David Tsehai said the couple sought refuge in Nairobi four years ago after fleeing Tanzania.

“It was the scariest moment of my life,” he said in a video clip shared by the Law Society of Kenya late on Sunday.

“There is no doubt in my mind (it is) the thugs of the Tanzania Information and Security Services (TISS) who are behind this.”

Amnesty International researcher Roland Ebole said Sarungi Tsehai’s abduction was another example of “transnational repression that is happening on Kenyan soil,” accusations Kenyan authorities deny.