Tanzania arrests opposition leader and blocks protests

Police arrested leading opposition politicians in Tanzania on Monday, their party said, as authorities tried to prevent a mass protest in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Despite an official ban, the opposition Chadema party had announced that it would hold the rally despite the alleged kidnapping and murder of its members by security forces.

Chadema said chairman Freeman Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu were both arrested on Monday, while riot police were stationed in key areas of the city to prevent gatherings.

“Demonstrating is our constitutional right and we are surprised at the level of violence used by the police to threaten people and suppress our freedom,” Mbowe told his supporters before being taken away by police, according to a video shared online by the party.

Chadema accuses the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning the country to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.

Hassan took power after Magufuli's sudden death in March 2021 and appeared to signal a more liberal approach by rolling back restrictions on opposition rallies and the media.

But Chadema accuses security forces of being behind the recent disappearance of several members and the murder of Ali Mohamed Kibao of the National Secretariat, who was found dead earlier this month.

Police also prevented a youth rally of the party in August and arrested dozens of its leaders, including Mbowe and Lissu.

Human rights groups and Western governments, including the United States, have expressed concern about renewed repression ahead of local elections in November and parliamentary elections in late 2025.

Lissu, a leading opposition politician, has been arrested numerous times and suffered numerous gunshot wounds in an assassination attempt in 2017.

He returned to Tanzania last year after Hassan lifted the ban on opposition rallies.

The police had claimed that the Chadema protests would turn violent.

But in a speech broadcast on X on Sunday, Mbowe said: “I remind Tanzanians that we will hold peaceful protests. We do not carry weapons, nor do we plan to disturb the peace as some claim.”

“If any of us are arrested, injured or even killed, pray for us and never turn back. We are doing this to make our country a peaceful place to live,” he said.