Kenya in the dock: The fight to find a missing Tanzanian activist tests the country’s reputation as a safe haven
Martha Karua in court | Photo: X
The disappearance of CHADEMA youth leader Twaha Salim Mwaipaya — abducted in broad daylight on Kenyan soil — has placed Nairobi at the centre of a deepening regional crisis over transnational repression.
By Grace Wanja
Kenya’s High Court yesterday compelled Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja to appear in person before Justice Alexander Muteti to account for the disappearance of Tanzanian opposition activist Twaha Salim Mwaipaya — missing since armed men seized him from a taxi in Kamulu, on the outskirts of Nairobi, on Sunday, October 25.
Kanja told the court that Mwaipaya had never been in police custody anywhere in the country. “My Lord, I’d wish to inform this court we don’t have the subject in our custody throughout the Republic of Kenya,” he said, adding that he was not aware of any arrest involving the activist by officers of the National Police Service. He confirmed, however, that a missing person report had been lodged at Ruai Police Station and that investigations were ongoing.
The police chief went further, flatly rejecting allegations of enforced disappearances. “Any abduction is to be treated as an act of criminality,” Kanja said. “We don’t abduct and make people disappear.” The court was not fully satisfied. The matter was not closed, and proceedings are expected to continue.
The case had been building for over a week. Mwaipaya was ambushed while travelling in a taxi in Machakos County alongside another CHADEMA member. A four-wheel-drive vehicle forced their taxi off the road. Three masked men emerged, armed. His companion escaped by pushing through the front passenger door. Mwaipaya, seated in the back, could not get out before being taken.
Mwaipaya serves as the national mobilisation coordinator for the youth wing of Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo — CHADEMA — whose leader, Tundu Lissu, is currently on trial for treason in Dar es Salaam. Mwaipaya was jailed in Tanzania in 2022 for criticising the government. He fled into exile in Kenya last year. His disappearance, human rights groups warned from the outset, bore the hallmarks of a forced rendition to a country where his safety could not be guaranteed.
Amnesty International East Africa Researcher Sikula Oniala confirmed that five masked individuals wearing dark sunglasses had intercepted the taxi in a double-cab vehicle. The organisation verified the abduction and immediately reported it to police in the area where it occurred. “Authorities must urgently establish his whereabouts and ensure his safety,” Amnesty International Kenya said.
Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi — herself abducted in Nairobi in January 2025 before being released — raised fears that Mwaipaya could be forcibly returned to Tanzania. John Heche, vice-chairman of CHADEMA, was blunter still. “Nairobi cannot remain an abduction hub for dictators,” he said, urging Kenyan authorities to find Mwaipaya and demanding accountability from the state. CHADEMA formally appealed to President William Ruto to intervene and ensure Mwaipaya was found safe.
It was Martha Karua, leader of the People’s Liberation Party and a veteran human rights lawyer, who took the matter to court. Representing Vocal Africa, she pushed the application that resulted in Kanja’s personal summons — a rare and significant step. Yesterday, she described what that process had achieved, and what remained unresolved. “While he denied that Twaha was in police custody, that cannot be the end of the matter,” Karua said. “We must establish Twaha’s whereabouts, ensure his safety and hold those responsible accountable. We will not relent in the pursuit of truth and justice. Aluta continua. The struggle continues.”
The summons had followed Karua’s dismissal of the State’s earlier compliance attempts, which had seen only junior police officers appear in court. She insisted their presence was wholly inadequate to address the concerns raised by Kenyans, Tanzanians and Ugandans following Mwaipaya’s disappearance, and argued that police had failed to comply with the earlier directive requiring Mwaipaya’s production — that neither the activist nor his body had been presented before the court.
Amnesty International’s Kenyan director, George Morara, warned that the organisation feared Kenya was “in cahoots with its regional neighbours to facilitate cross-border repression.” The charge is serious — and not without precedent. In February 2026, another Tanzanian activist, Mshabaha Mshabaha Hamza, was also captured in Kenya and later released. Amnesty International warned at the time that the incident was part of a “growing and worrying trend of transnational repression.” Kenya’s record on the issue has also been questioned in relation to the forced return of four Turkish nationals in 2024 and a South Sudanese critic in 2026.
What is at stake in the Mwaipaya case goes beyond one man’s fate. Kenya has long positioned itself as a refuge for dissidents from across the region — a country where activists can organise, speak and survive when their own governments will not allow it. That reputation now faces a direct test. If a Tanzanian CHADEMA organiser can be seized at gunpoint in broad daylight on Kenyan soil and vanish without accountability, the message sent to every other exile, refugee and opposition figure seeking sanctuary in Nairobi is unambiguous and chilling.
The High Court has not yet established what happened to Twaha Salim Mwaipaya, who took him, or where he is. The Inspector General of Police has denied all knowledge. The investigations, the authorities insist, are ongoing. For Mwaipaya’s family, for CHADEMA, for the human rights organisations tracking the case, and for the lawyers who refuse to let it go quiet, ongoing is not enough.
Kenya must find this man. And it must answer for how he disappeared.
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