Martha Karua Takes Aim at Tanzanian President Suluhu Over Visa Rules
Senior Counsel and former Kenyan Justice Minister Martha Karua has once again criticized Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu, this time over the issue of strict visa policies.
Karua’s fresh attack came shortly after the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, made a powerful call for African and Caribbean nations to scrap visa requirements between their citizens.
Mottley argued that removing these restrictions would improve unity and ease movement across the regions.
“All visa requirements should be abolished. Africans and Caribbean people should be able to move freely,” Mottley boldly stated.
Her message quickly gained support from Karua, who reposted it on her social media on Saturday, June 7, 2025. In her post, Karua tagged President Suluhu, urging her to take Mottley’s statement seriously and reconsider the restrictive immigration policies.
Karua’s endorsement of Mottley’s remarks came just weeks after she was denied entry into Tanzania. On May 18, 2025, Karua was blocked from entering the country alongside well-known Kenyan human rights advocates Lynn Ngugi and Gloria Kimani.
The incident raised eyebrows, considering Karua’s status as a respected public figure from a fellow East African Community (EAC) member state.
In a detailed account, Karua shared her experience at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. She said she arrived at around 9:00 am, but immigration officers took her passport and referred her to a supervisor. She was then held for over an hour without a clear explanation.
“I arrived at Dar es Salaam’s Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport at nine in the morning. My passport was taken and handed over to a supervisor who kept me waiting as she made calls to her seniors. I was left in limbo for more than an hour.
As a citizen of the EAC—Jumuiya—this treatment is deeply troubling. It’s concerning that I cannot move freely within the region despite the agreements meant to support such access,” Karua explained.
Her frustrations were echoed by many who questioned the future of regional cooperation within the EAC if such restrictions continue.
Karua’s concern is that visa restrictions are not only unnecessary but are also undermining the goals of unity, integration, and free movement that the EAC was created to promote.
Interestingly, her remarks came just hours after a similar incident involving a Tanzanian opposition leader, Godbless Lema, who claimed he was barred from entering Kenya on Friday, June 6, 2025.
According to Lema, he was detained at the Kenya-Tanzania border for more than four hours before being informed that he could not proceed into Kenya.
“I was told to return to Arusha and follow up with the immigration department in Dodoma for clarification. I am in serious pain and had an important hospital appointment in Nairobi.
Now I can’t attend it because I have been denied entry,” Lema said in a post shared on his social media accounts.
The back-to-back incidents involving high-profile figures from both countries have sparked fresh debates about the state of relations within the East African Community and the urgent need to address visa restrictions that continue to affect citizens unfairly.
Many believe that if leaders like Karua and Lema can be stopped at the border, ordinary citizens are likely facing even greater challenges when it comes to cross-border movement.
Karua’s strong stance on the matter has been praised by many who feel that African leaders must urgently rethink immigration policies that contradict the spirit of African unity and regional integration.
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