Kenya: Ugandan Journalist Agather Atuhaire Recounts Harrowing Ordeal During Detention in Tanzania

Nairobi — Ugandan journalist and human rights activist Agather Atuhaire has shared a disturbing account of abuse and mistreatment allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian authorities during a recent detention in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking during a press conference on Monday alongside Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, Atuhaire described a harrowing experience marked by physical assault, humiliation, and fear, after the two traveled to Tanzania to support opposition leader Tundu Lissu during a court appearance.

Both were reportedly held incommunicado for several days before being forcibly deported,Mwangi was left at the Horohoro border crossing with Kenya, and Atuhaire at the Mutukula border with Uganda.

Atuhaire recalled that after being taken into custody, officers stripped her down to her underwear and beat her.

“They removed all my clothes and left me in my underwear. They beat me.Then I was taken to a clinic, and they inserted stuff into me,”she stated.

Torture and Sexual Abuse

According to her account, she was forced to lie flat while unidentified substances were injected and inserted into her body. Too weak to resist, she endured the abuse in silence.

“I had no strength left to resist,” she said.

Atuhaire said the authorities seemed to grow concerned about the severity of her injuries as her condition deteriorated.

“They kept checking on me. I think they started to panic that I might not leave in a physically stable condition. They had to make sure I walked out looking like a human being,” she said.

She recounted being given painkillers repeatedly, to the point of what she described as near-overdose.

Upon her release, she discovered a medical note indicating a prescription of “one times two,” but she had been administered the drugs up to four times a day.

“They kept giving me painkillers. They almost overdosed me,” she said.

Atuhaire said the perpetrators did not use their sexual organs during the assault, something she described as a grim but small relief.

“At least I wouldn’t have to deal with HIV or other diseases. But the scars, both emotional and physical, remained,” she said.

The Ugandan activist revealed that physical impact of the abuse left her unable to walk for three days.

“I couldn’t walk for three days. I couldn’t step down. The feet were so swollen have you ever felt your skin become so tight that you think if you stepped on something, it would prick or burst? That’s how the soles of my feet felt,” Atuhaire noted.