Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu has spoken hours after several Kenyans, including Martha Karua , Willy Mutunga , Hussein Khalid and Hanifa Adan, were deported from the neighbouring country.
Speaking at a function Monday, she warned regional activists against what she termed as interference in Tanzania's affairs.
She told Tanzanian authorities not to allow "those who have spoiled their countries to cross over to Tanzania".
"We will not give space to anyone trying to destabilise us here," she said.
On Sunday, People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua was detained at the Julius Nyerere Airport, Dar es Salaam, before being deported back to Nairobi.
Ms Karua said there's an increasing attempt by East African member states to curtail the voice of the opposition parties in the region.
Separately, activist Boniface Mwangi, who is also in Tanzania, has claimed that his life is in danger after armed individuals claiming to be police officers staged a siege at his hotel room in Dar es Salaam on Sunday night.
'Disappeared with our passports for hours'
While President Suluhu was speaking, ex-Chief Justice Mutunga and his delegation were landing in Nairobi where they condemned Tanzanian authorities for detaining them at the airport yet their passports show they are East African citizens.
Dr Mutunga said that the immigration officers confiscated their passports and put them in a room before disappearing for hours without giving them a clear reason for being held incommunicado.
It is only later that they realised that they were to be deported to Kenya on the afternoon Kenya Airways flight from Dar es Salam.
“The failure to tell people why you are detaining them is totally illegal. They were just saying there are some challenges and they are waiting for instructions. It is unacceptable. This trend of dictatorship that we are seeing in East Africa is very dangerous. This is how people have disappeared, been abducted and so forth,” Dr Mutunga said.
For the former CJ, being allowed to observe opposition leader Tundu Lissu’s trial was a good thing for Tanzania because it would show the world that it is not a Kangaroo court and give the entire process legitimacy.
“What we are going to do is to seek legal advice to sue the government of Tanzania. This thing of detaining people without telling them why yet they are in the East African Community is not right. If we do not resist the dictatorships in East Africa we will have a system where everybody’s rights are violated,” he said.
On his part, Vocal Africa's Khalid revealed that they were being closely monitored and even escorted to shops and washrooms for the entire 12 hours that they were detained at the airport.
For the Vocal Africa boss, the tradition of observing cases of note is respected globally and it was their way of showing solidarity with Mr Lissu, the party leader of Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), who is facing charges of treason and incitement.
