Kenya demands safety for its citizens after Tanzania’s post-election crackdown

The safety of Kenyans caught up in post-election violence in neighbouring Tanzania must be guaranteed, Kenya’s foreign minister has told his Tanzanian counterpart.

Kenyan citizens are living in fear in Tanzania after being reportedly targeted in a brutal crackdown on the protests that followed last week’s disputed election.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the poll with 98% of the vote and in her inauguration speech condemned the violence and blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the rights of some Kenyans had been violated and that “formal reports” had been submitted to the Tanzanian authorities “for appropriate action”.

During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be “addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels”.

But he had reaffirmed “the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity” of Kenyans living in Tanzania.

In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.

The Tanzanian government has come under intense international scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force to quell post-election protests, which reportedly left hundreds of people dead.

It has sought to downplay the scale of the violence and has dismissed the number of deaths given by the opposition as greatly exaggerated.