Foreign Affairs minister Musalia Mudavadi’s appearance on TV to defend the deportation of Kenyans from Tanzania was disastrous and a demonstration of Kenya’s broken foreign policy. It actually made it more than apparent that he was the wrong man for the job.

The country’s foreign minister fell short of suggesting that the high-profile deportees-including a former chief justice and a former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister—were victims of their “indiscipline.”

The seemingly clueless Mudavadi defended Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu’s comments that Kenyans who had gone to observe court proceedings against a political detainee were interfering with the affairs of her country. It is unthinkable that a minister of government can support the deportation of Kenyans who have staked their lives in the fight against injustice and oppression-wherever it occurs. According to Mudavadi, “there is some truth in Suluhu’s words.”

“Let us face a few facts. The level of etiquette, insults, that we see in Kenya, even though we have the freedom of speech, is sometimes going overboard to some extent. She is saying people have sometimes gone to extremes in their utterances in Kenya, which is a fact,” he said.

And he was not ashamed to tell the country that the ministry had not found it important to contact the Kenyans who were detained in Tanzania. Mudavadi’s continued stay at Foreign Affairs is chilling and frightening.

There has always been an argument that Mudavadi is an overrated scion of the Kanu dictatorship. He is on record that he is highly indebted to the late President Danie Arap Moi whose association with justice, free expression and human rights was barely an iota.
His statement yesterday that Ruto’s failing government “defends the rights of all Kenyans, wherever they are in this world” was a hollow knee-jerk damage control exercise that should be treated with the contempt it earns.

Mudavadi should be reminded that the safety of Kenyans abroad is far more important than pathological sycophancy for self-preservation.

The minister owes Kenyans an apology.

As the Amnesty International and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project warned, the decision to deport high-profile Kenyan figures while detaining a vocal activist sends a disturbing message not just to Tanzanians, but to East Africans committed to free expression and cross-border solidarity.

As the Tanzania Bar Association (TLS) Human Rights Committee THRDC pointed out, the deportation was a disgraceful act and an affront to their personal dignity and fundamental freedoms as well as blatant violation of the principles of the East African Community.

The realisation of the noble goals in the EAC founding document has been hindered by hostility and paranoia by member states, especially the United Republic of Tanzania. This has been reflected in trade barriers, unfair competitive practices, restrictions to labour mobility and political competition.

The cases of politically- instigated abductions in Kenya and repression of progressive and dissenting voices continue to taint the East African landscape.

But it was never anticipated that the hostility and mutual distrust among member countries will escalate to the deportation of law-abiding East African community citizens.