Besigye lawyer Martha Karua deported from Tanzania

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Kenyan lawyer Martha Karua, a presidential candidate who also represents a major opposition figure on trial in neighbouring Uganda, on Sunday said she was expelled from Tanzania, where she was due to attend the trial of a prominent opposition figure.

Karua had been due to attend -- as an observer -- the trial of Tanzanian opposition leader Tindu Lissu, who is due in court on Monday on treason charges and faces a possible death penalty.

The trial comes as Tanzania prepares for elections in October.

Karua "was detained at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, questioned for three hours," her spokesperson said earlier on Sunday.

The politician confirmed her expulsion on social media, stating that she had landed in Kenya at around 16.15 local time (13:15 GMT), over an hour after posting that the deportation process was "complete" and that she was en route to Nairobi.

"Deportation complete! On board @KQSupport flight No 485 for Nairobi," Karua wrote on her X account on Sunday afternoon.

She later added: "Landed at JKIA safely awaiting to disembark."

Her spokesperson had earlier said that she Tanzanian authorities had confiscated her passport while waiting to deport her.

A former justice minister in Kenya, Karua has been vocal about "democratic backsliding" in the East Africa region.

She has been representing Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was kidnapped in Kenya last year and taken back to his home country to also face treason charges.

Uganda holds elections in January. Karua's People's Liberation Party, denounced her treatment.

"This disgraceful act is not only an affront to their personal dignity and fundamental freedoms but also a blatant violation of the principles of the East African Community (EAC), of which both Kenya and Tanzania are founding members," the party said in a statement on X.

"The EAC Treaty guarantees the free movement of persons, respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law."

Karua told AFP in an interview earlier this month that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were seeing a "total erosion of democratic principles".

"All these countries now have become dangerous, not just to others but to their own nationals. I tie this to the forthcoming elections," she said.

She accused the leadership of the three countries of "collaborating".

"It's a pattern," she said. "They are neutering the opposition ahead of elections."

Karua launched the People's Liberation Party in February, vowing to engage with young people as she prepares a run for the presidency in 2027.

She faces competition from an array of opposition leaders in the country, all hoping to take on President William Ruto, whose popularity was undermined by mass protests last year over tax rises and corruption.

'Total disarray'

In the 2022 election, Karua was the running mate of Raila Odinga, who lost out to Ruto.

Kenya is in "total disarray", she told AFP in the interview this month.

"It's as if our constitution has been suspended. We have abductions, arbitrary arrests... extrajudicial killings... And the police and authorities fail to take responsibility," she said.

Rights groups say at least 60 Kenyans were killed during the protests in June and July, and more than 80 abducted by security forces since then, with dozens still missing.

Kenya's police deny involvement.

Ruto told reporters last week that all those abducted in the wake of anti-government protests "have been brought back to their families".

"I have given clarity and firm instructions that nothing of that kind of nature will happen again," he said.

Meanwhile in Tanzania, Lissu's party Chadema was disqualified from the forthcoming elections after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct.

It had demanded electoral reforms, accusing President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning to the repressive tactics of the country's recent past.