An unusual request from the Kenyan president caused a stir at the end of May. "To our neighbors from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us," William Ruto told a delegation of Tanzanian MPs at a national prayer breakfast.

Some Kenyans found the gesture appropriate, but others found it outrageous. Less than a week prior, prominent Kenyan photojournalist and activist Boniface Mwangi had returned to Kenya visibly weakened after five days in a Tanzanian prison.

He and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire had traveled to Tanzania to support imprisoned opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is on trial on charges of treason. Lissu and his Party for Democracy and Development (Chadema), the country's largest opposition party, had called for the Tanzanian constitution to be reformed ahead of elections in October.

Early this week, Mwangi and Atuhaire made serious accusations at a press conference. They described how they were arrested in their hotel and later brutally tortured and raped. Mwangi also described numerous details in a lengthy post on the social media platform........

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