Tanzania Seemingly Resumes Despotic Rule After Main Opposition Leaders Are Arrested Again

Tanzania seemingly resumed despotic rule after leaders of the main opposition party, Chadema, were arrested in Dar es Salaam, in the morning hours of September 23, 2024.

According to some African media, the chairman and deputy chairman of Chadema, namely Freeman Mbowe and Tundu Lissu respectively, were arrested and taken away by the police, ahead of the party's planned peaceful mass protest in the coastal metropolis. The protest is said to be the party's response to recent abduction and barbaric killing of its senior official called Ali Mohamed Kibao (69). The party accuses the country's State security forces for the killing.

Image: Downtown Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Reportedly, the barbaric killing of Ali Mohamed Kibao was as thus.

On September 6, 2024, Ali Mohamed Kibao was travelling to his hometown of Tanga in a bus. The latter was abruptly stopped by some suspected armed State security agents. The agents got into the bus, handcuffed Mr Kibao and took him away. Later on September 7, 2024, Mr Kibao was found dead in a Dar es Salaam's beachfront suburb called Ununio. Autopsy that followed showed that the deceased was brutally battered to death and acid was poured on his face. Horrific killing of a politician that has never been witnessed in Tanzania before, not even during the era of one party system. The government there said the killing will be investigated but so far no one has been arrested for it.

The barbaric killing of Ali Mohamed Kibao has been condemned both locally and internationally, with the government of Tanzania showing discontent with the international attention that has been given to the killing, saying that the matter is an internal one. But then, matters of killing of opposition politicians by suspected government agents if verified, violates universal human rights. Particularly, it violates right to life, hence the international law. The latter prohibits arbitrary deprivation of life. As such, any member of the global community can raise concern. It is up to the government of Tanzania to provide credible evidence that shows its State security agents were not involved in the murder of its citizen Ali Mohamed Kibao, or if it is true they were involved as alleged, the government should arrest the perpetrators of the crime immediately.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, a year or so ago, the current government of Tanzania lifted an unconstitutional ban on gatherings by opposition parties, in what it indicated to be its move towards ensuring level playing field for all political parties. However, contrary to its action that is said have been received positively then by the opposition, the government in August 2024, made an unexpected U-turn by stamping out a rally held in the country's southern city of Mbeya, to mark the World Youth Day that was organized by Chadema, and arresting the party's top officials including Freeman Mbowe and Tundu Lissu. The latter was arrested on August 11, 2024, while the former was arrested on August 12, 2024.

The latest arrest of the two bosses of the main opposition, is therefore the second in less than two months, and seems to confirm a full-fledged return to the despicable despotic rule that the government of Tanzania had promised to ditch once and for all. That comes as the East Africa Community nation braces for general elections that include a presidential election, that are expected to be held in the last quarter of 2025.

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