{"id":56783,"date":"2026-01-08T13:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/two-kenyan-police-officers-arrested-in-tanzania-freed\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T14:03:25","slug":"two-kenyan-police-officers-arrested-in-tanzania-freed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/two-kenyan-police-officers-arrested-in-tanzania-freed\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Kenyan police officers arrested in Tanzania freed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The group included Police Constable Patrick Kithinji and Police Constable Ahmed Ali, both attached to the Tononoka Police Station Crime Office in Kenya. They were reportedly pursuing a suspect wanted in Kenya in connection with an alleged fraud case involving obtaining money by false pretence when they crossed into Tanzanian territory on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>Also among those detained were the suspect\u2019s wife, Sophia Menza Mbogo, their driver, Abdikadir Adan, and a government official from the Coast Development Authority, who were travelling together in a Kenyan government vehicle. <\/p>\n<p>At the time of their arrest, Tanzanian authorities confiscated two loaded Ceska pistols, each held by one of the police officers, along with ammunition and the vehicle. The Tanzanian side said the group breached immigration laws and East African Community regulations by entering the United Republic of Tanzania without permission and carrying firearms on foreign soil without prior coordination. <\/p>\n<p>Tanzanian officials stated that the group\u2019s actions violated both national immigration laws and the East African Community One\u2011Stop Border Post Act, 2016, which governs the operation of joint border controls and requires partner states to coordinate cross\u2011border activities. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would like to confirm that five Kenyans were arrested for conducting the arrest of a suspect in violation of the law and the East African Community One\u2011Stop Border Post (OSBP) Act of 2016. I request that they be presented for further action,&#8221; said Earnest Lukaza, the Tanzanian officer in charge of the One\u2011Stop Border Post (OSBP) at Lunga Lunga, while confirming the arrest.<\/p>\n<p>The detained Kenyans were initially held at the Horohoro border. A letter from Tanzanian authorities to Kenyan border officials notified them that the individuals entered Tanzania unlawfully and lacked the necessary authority to conduct an arrest on Tanzanian soil. <\/p>\n<p>Following diplomatic engagement between the two countries, the five Kenyans were later handed over to Kenyan authorities at Lunga Lunga.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-100368 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6elogo.jpg\" alt=\"A file photo of Kenyan police officers during a past operation. Two Kenyan police officers, along with three other nationals, were detained by Tanzanian authorities after crossing the Horohoro One\u2011Stop Border Post without authorization while attempting to arrest a suspect.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Kenyan police officers, along with three other nationals, were detained by Tanzanian authorities after crossing the Horohoro One\u2011Stop Border Post without authorization while attempting to arrest a suspect. The group was later released and handed back to Kenyan officials following diplomatic engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100367,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/csm_kenya_police_f37fef7d6e.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56783"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56783"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}