Two Kenyans who were released from a Tanzanian jail in 2014 have revealed shocking details of torture they underwent while serving their sentence.
Michael Mbanya Wathigo and Peter Gikuru Mburu were among 12 Kenyans arrested in Mozambique and forcefully transferred to a jail in Tanzania.
According to Wathigo he and 11 others were arrested on allegations of carjacking and stealing a car.
“I had arrived in Maputo the previous day and was looking forward to touring the city when the Mozambican police stormed my room. One yanked my gold chain off while another grabbed my wristwatch before handcuffing me,” Wathigo recalled.
He revealed that the police officers robbed them of their mobile phones, more than Sh8 Million, wrist watches, wallets, jewellery and gifts they had bought for their families.
He narrated that in January 2006, they were flown to Tanzania where they spent four days in handcuffs without food and water.
The 12 were then transferred to Moshi where they were tortured into confessing to various crimes.
“We were separately herded into interrogation rooms where we were hung upside down and tortured into confessing our involvement in various crimes,” Mburu stated.
He says that days later, they were arraigned in a Moshi court and charged with armed robbery and conspiracy to commit offences.
They were then locked up in segregation at Karanga Maximum Security prison for four years where two of them succumbed to torture.
In 2015, five of the convicts were acquitted at different times. However, two of them were reportedly executed in cold blood by the Tanzanian police after they returned to the country to visit their comrades who were still in jail.
