Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has criticised Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi for defending Tanzania President Samia Suluhu’s remarks on the conduct of Kenyan activists.
This follows the deportation of the People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua and former Chief Justice (CJ) Willy Mutunga, alongside other activists, from Tanzania, preventing them from attending the court case of an opposition leader charged with treason.
In an address on May 20, 2025, Suluhu warned Kenyan activists that she would not allow activists to “destabilise” her country.
“If they have been contained in their country, let them not come here to meddle. Let’s not give them a chance. They have already created chaos in their own country,” Samia said.
In a statement on X on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, Sifuna stated that Mudavadi defending Suluhu on the deportation of the activists’ remarks was wild.
“Our Minister for Foreign Affairs taking Tanzania’s side on the deportation of Kenyans is wild. Who put these people in power?” he stated.
This is after Mudavadi acknowledged the legitimacy of Samia’s concerns regarding the tone and content of political dialogue in Kenya.
Mudavadi’s remarks
Speaking to a local TV station on May 20, 2025, Mudavadi stated that Samia might have been speaking from her observation of the conduct of Kenyans in recent times.
“I will not protest that (Samia Suluhu’s remarks) because I think there is some truth. Let us face a few facts. The level of etiquette and insults that we see in Kenya, even though we have the freedom of speech, sometimes goes overboard to some extent. She is saying people have sometimes gone to extremes in their utterances in Kenya, which is a fact.”
“What we need to talk about is, can we get to the bottom of the treatment there? I am a Kenyan too, and the fact of the matter is that our approach and our utterances, because we are free in speech, have lacked integrity,” he added.
Further, Mudavadi admitted that he lacked detailed information about the specific deportation of Kenyan activists and therefore could not comment on the appropriateness of Tanzania’s actions.
He also emphasised the need for further evidence before making a definitive assessment.
“These are facts that we will have to establish; I agree to some extent with what she said. She said that she is unhappy because they observe what we do here, but I will need a little time to get more evidence into the details of the operation, to the point of saying whether we have displayed decency. I am not talking about the individuals in question, but she is talking from a general viewpoint, and if it is a general viewpoint, then I think she has a point.”
Speaking earlier at the funeral of Mzee Mwalimu William Lumati, the father of the new Chancellor of the Co-operative University, Benard Chitunga, in Kakamega County, Mudavadi urged Kenyans to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy.
Mudavadi stated that while these liberties are fundamental to the nation’s democracy, they should be exercised responsibly.
