Prominent Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai, who was abducted by gunmen in Kenya, said she was released hours after the incident.
Amnesty International Kenya spokesman Roland Ebole told the BBC she was “forced” into a vehicle in the capital Nairobi on Sunday afternoon.
But Ms. Tsehai was released a few hours later. She shared the video with her 1.3 million followers on X, looking visibly shaken and emotional, but said: “I’m saved.”
Ms Tsehai is a fierce critic of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and has accused her government of “bringing back tyranny” to the country.
President of the Law Society of Kenya, Faith Odhiambo, said on X that they had managed to arrange her release.
“We are sending a warning. We will not allow our country to be used as a haven for collecting individuals,” she said at an evening press conference.
Neither Kenyan nor Tanzanian officials have commented.
Ms. Tsehai is a fierce advocate for land rights and freedom of expression in Tanzania.
There were concerns that Tanzania could return to the repressive rule of the late President Magufuli, despite his successor Samia lifting a ban on opposition gatherings and promising to restore competitive politics.
Last year dozens of opponents were arrested and some were brutally killed. A senior opposition leader died after being doused with acid.
Human Rights Watch described the rise in arrests of opposition activists as a “bad sign” ahead of the 2025 presidential election, which will be held in October.
Change Tanzania, the movement founded by Ms Tsehai, said in a statement to X that it believed she had been taken by Tanzanian security agents “operating outside Tanzania’s borders to silence legitimate criticism of the government”.
It added that her “courage in standing up for justice made her a target.”
In recent months, she has expressed concern for her safety, reporting an incident in which two unidentified men were seen searching her home while she was gone.
Kenya has a history of allowing foreign governments to abduct its citizens and carry out forced renditions, in violation of international law.
Last year, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was abducted in Nairobi by Ugandan security officials and taken across the border to be tried by a military court.
The Ugandan government said Kenya helped them in the operation – but the Kenyan government denied this.
Mr Ebole told the BBC that “it could be another repeat” of Mr Ebole’s situation. Besigye.
Internally, Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, following last year’s youth protests against a series of planned tax increases.
A state-funded human rights group says more than 80 people have been abducted in the past six months.
Several have been released in recent weeks, and there are growing calls for the release of all those abducted.
