Kenyan senior counsel and political figure Martha Karua has recounted the events leading to her denial of entry into Uganda, saying immigration officers at Entebbe International Airport forcibly confiscated her phones and held her for hours without clear explanation.
Speaking upon her arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Karua said she landed in Uganda at 8:50 a.m. aboard a Kenya Airways flight, travelling alongside three other colleagues on a legal mission.
“I arrived at Entebbe Airport at 8:50 aboard KQ and I was with three others,” she said.
Karua explained that she was only carrying hand luggage and had remained at the immigration area waiting for her colleagues when an officer approached her with unusual instructions.
“I only had a hand luggage and while waiting for my colleagues, an immigration officer came and told me she had been told that she had made a mistake and there was a note on me,” she stated.
She said the situation escalated shortly after she was taken to a senior immigration official at the airport, where she was informed that there were internal instructions regarding her entry.
“I was taken to a man called the Principal Immigration Officer at the airport and I told them there is no problem,” Karua said, adding that she remained calm during the initial engagement.
However, she alleged that the situation became more confrontational moments later when officers seized her communication devices.
“By then, two of his juniors had already snatched my phones by force. They did not even ask me. They are very ill-behaved fellows,” she said.
Karua’s account paints a tense picture of her brief detention at the airport, where she was later denied entry into Uganda and returned to Kenya under unclear administrative directives.
The incident has drawn attention from legal and political observers across the region, particularly given Karua’s involvement in a delegation of lawyers travelling to observe proceedings linked to high-profile opposition-related cases in Uganda.
The Law Society of Kenya had earlier expressed concern over her treatment, noting that she was travelling in her professional capacity as part of a regional legal team.