Leading Kenyan lawyer and the country's former Justice Minister Martha Karua says she has been deported from Tanzania to prevent her from attending the court case of opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Karua is a respected human rights advocate, and a vocal critic of what she calls "democratic backsliding" in East Africa. Karua served as Kenya's justice minister from 2005 to 2009, and was the running-mate of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in his failed presidential bid in elections in 2022. She launched her own opposition party, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), earlier this year. The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition said it was shocked by what it called the "arbitrary arrests", as Karua had been allowed into Tanzania to observe proceedings when Lissu appeared in court on 15 April.