Kubenea charged with illegal entry into Tanzania

Arusha/Dar. ACT-Wazalendo’s parliamentary candidate for Kinondoni, Mr Saed Kubenea, yesterday appeared in court in Arusha, charged with entering Tanzania illegally and failing to declare a large sum of foreign currency.

Mr Kubenea denied all charges and was remanded.

It was alleged before the Arusha Resident Magistrate’s Court that the accused exited Tanzania without passing through an official border post and entered Kenya on September 3, this year, and returned to Tanzania two days later through the same route.

This, according to the prosecutor, Mr Innocent Njau, was a flagrant violation of immigration laws.

After his arrest at the border town of Namanga in Arusha Region, MrKubenea was allegedly found with cash in three currencies which, according to the prosecution, he failed to declare at an official border crossing. The cash was $8,000, Ksh491,700 and Tsh71,000.

MrNjau said by using an unofficial route into Tanzania from Kenya, the accused’s entry into the country was illegal.

He further told the court Mr Kubenea’s failure to declare the foreign currency that was in his possession was against the law.

The Anti-Money Laundering (Cross Border Declaration of Currency and Bearer Negotiable Instruments) Regulations, 2016 require that large sums of money carried across borders be declared.

Mr Kubenea, who is the publisher of the online newspaper Hali Halisi, denied the allegations before Senior Resident Magistrate Martha Mahumbuga.

The accused had earlier denied that he had travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, on September 3, saying his journey ended in Namanga.

He told the investigators that he did not spend a night in Kenya, and was instead hosted by a relative in Arusha on the days he was alleged to have travelled to the neighbouring country.

But the prosecution produced a bus ticket allegedly used by the accused when he travelled from Nairobi to Namanga aboard a Super Coach bus with the registration KCP4230.

Also seized was a receipt allegedly issued to MrKubenea when he spent a night at 40Hotels Limited in Nairobi and an memorandum of understanding between Hali Halisi and Buni Media of Kenya.

The prosecution did not state categorically that investigations had been completed.

MsMaumbuga adjourned the case to September 21 when it will come up for another mention.

Mr Kubenea was the Chadema MP for Ubungo in Dar es Salaam from 2015 to 2020 during which he was an outspoken lawmaker. He defected to ACT-Wazalendo, another opposition outfit, following Parliament’s dissolution, and was nominated to contest the Kinondoni parliamentary seat.

Reached for comment last night, ACT-Wazalendo ideology and public communications secretary Janet Rite said the party was not aware that MrKubenea had visited Kenya.

She added that the party lawyers were closely following up the case with a view to securing bail for MrKubenea, adding that he was still the party’s candidate for the Kinondoni seat.

Ms Rite said the party would today process the Sh5 million cash bail MrKubenea was required to pay to be freed.

The party’s national campaigns manager, Mr Emmanuel Mvula, said they expected Mr Kubenea to be released today,

“We could not finalise his bail application today (yesterday), and we expect to do so tomorrow (today) morning. We will finalise the process and he will be released,” he said.

MrMvula added that MrKubenea was still the party’s Kinondoni candidate because he had only been charged with criminal offences, and not convicted.