Latest news with #Chadema
DW
23-05-2025
- Politics
- DW
Ugandan activist freed by Tanzania, 'indications of torture' – DW – 05/23/2025
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned earlier this week that foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in the country's affairs. Tanzania has released Ugandan lawyer and activist Agather Atuhaire, who had been in custody since Monday after attempting to attend a treason trial for an opposition leader. Ugandan rights group Agora Discourse posted on X on Friday that Atuhaire had been found. "She was abandoned at the border by Tanzanian authorities," it said. Its co-founder Spire Ssentongo told the AFP news agency that "Agather is under the care of family and friends." "She was dumped at the border at night by the authorities and there are indications of torture," Ssentongo added. Accusations of torture Atuhaire is the second of two foreign activists — the other being Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi — who had been detained after arriving in Tanzania's most populous city, Dar es Salaam, to attend the first court appearance of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu. Mwangi is a prominent campaigner against corruption and police brutality in Kenya. He was also found abandoned on a roadside in northern Tanzania near the Kenyan border, Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported. "We were both treated worse than dogs, chained, blindfolded and underwent a very gruesome torture," Mwangi told reporters on his return to Nairobi. Is Tanzania's government trying to silence opposition? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In a post on X, Mwangi said the last time he had been held together with Atuhaire was on Tuesday, when he had heard her groaning in pain after being tortured. "Our (torturers) were acting on orders from a 'state security' employee who came to Immigration offices and followed us to Central Police Station and ordered we should be taken to a secret location to be given a 'Tanzanian treatment'," Mwangi said. Tanzanian officials had not commented on the arrests of Atuhaire and Mwangi. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, however, warned earlier this week that foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in the country's affairs. She urged security services "not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here." What's behind the treason trial? Lissu, with whom the two activists wanted to show solidarity, is the leader of the country's main opposition party, Chadema. He came second in Tanzania's last presidential poll. Lissu was arrested last month and charged with treason over an alleged speech calling on Tanzanians to rebel and disrupt the country's presidential and parliamentary elections that are scheduled for October. The government claims that encouraging citizens to boycott the election is tantamount to an act of rebellion. Chadema was also disqualified from the elections after it refused to sign an electoral "code of conduct." Meet Tundu Lissu: The leader of Tanzania's Chadema party To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Growing crackdown on political opponents The case has highlighted a growing crackdown on opponents of President Hassan, whose party has nominated her to stand again. The 65-year-old leader became president after John Magufuli's death in 2021. Suluhu's tenure began with optimism, pledging to reverse many of Magufuli's controversial policies. However, she faced mounting criticism over frequent arrests, abductions, and killings of opposition politicians. Hassan has said the government is committed to respecting human rights, and ordered an investigation into reported abductions last year. Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
Daily Maverick
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Tanzanian police dump ‘severely tortured' activist on border as state slides back into authoritarianism
Something is rotten in the state of Tanzania. Despite promising to walk back the worst of former president John Magufuli's autocratic tendencies, following his death from Covid-19 and her ascension to the top job in 2021, Tanzanian leader Samia Suluhu Hassan has slipped right back into the dictator's mould. This week, as her fiercest opponent went on trial for treason, foreign activists travelling to Dar es Salaam to support him were detained and deported. Two of them were tortured in police custody and one is still missing. A prominent Kenyan activist was dumped at a remote border post by Tanzanian security agents on Thursday, after having been detained for days and tortured at Dar es Salaam Central Prison, alongside his Ugandan colleague. She is still missing. Photojournalist and opposition politician Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan human rights lawyer Agather Atuhaire were arrested shortly after entering the country on 18 May to attend the first court hearing of opposition politician Tundu Antiphas Lissu. Atuhaire has not been heard from since, but Mwangi said she was tortured at the prison as well. Lissu, the leader and former presidential candidate of the Chadema party, was charged with treason in early April following a political rally at which he called for election reform in the run-up to October's polls. The charge carries the death penalty in Tanzania. 'There is no legal case against Lissu,' said his younger brother, Ikoti Lissu, who is also a member of his legal team. 'Boycotting an election, campaigning for reforms – how can that become a treason charge? The president should not be allowed to appoint electoral commission officials,' the younger Lissu said. Foreign supporters detained, disappeared Mwangi and Atuhaire were part of a delegation of East African opposition leaders and human rights defenders who travelled to Dar es Salaam on 18 May to attend and observe Lissu's first court hearing. They were the only two allowed to enter the country. Several of their colleagues – Kenyan human rights defender Hussein Khalid, lawyer Martha Karua, former Kenyan chief justice Willy Mtunga, activists Lini Ngingi and Gloria Kimani and journalist Hania Safia Adan – were detained at Julius Nyerere International Airport. They were deported hours later. On the same day as Lissu's hearing, during the launch of the country's new foreign policy, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan issued a warning to foreign activists that the country 'cannot be a place where anyone feels entitled to say whatever they want about Tanzania'. 'There is a growing trend of activists from regional blocs attempting to meddle in our affairs,' Suluhu said from the stage. 'If they are restricted in their own countries, they should not be allowed to cause disorder here.' Mwangi is no stranger to the risks of speaking truth to power. His photojournalism and activism against government corruption and oppression in Kenya – and the heavy-handed response he and his family experience in return – were documented in the award-winning 2020 film, Softie. A thorn in CCM's side Lissu returned home in 2023 following several years in exile and recovery. As a member of parliament, in 2017 he narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Dodoma in which he was shot 16 times by gunmen, who strafed his vehicle with assault rifles outside his official residence. Lissu, who had 19 surgical operations, steadfastly maintains the men were hired by then-president John Magufuli's CCM party. Attempts to contact the spokesperson for CCM and the president's office went unanswered by the time of publication. Immediately picking up the campaign trail for Chadema upon his return, Lissu was arrested within months, on the first of several occasions. Government officials said he was encouraging the public to rebel and disrupt elections. Lissu is being held at Ukonga Maximum Security Prison. At his first appearance at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates' Court on Monday, he was surrounded by at least six prison officers in the dock, prompting the judge to direct them to let him appear freely. An earlier decision to hold the hearing online was struck down, and the case was postponed to 2 June – in open court – to allow prosecutors time to finalise their case. Chadema has been banned from contesting the 2025 presidential and parliamentary elections. 'Initially when [president] Suluhu took over, she came up with lots of rhetoric about reforms,' said Chadema director of foreign affairs and the diaspora, John Kitoka. 'But she is turning out to be just as bad as Magufuli. It's the same script.' '[President Suluhu's address] was a declaration of war on free speech, human rights defenders and activists for democracy. We should brace for a new wave of abductions, forced disappearances and killings, because her statement was an endorsement of such extrajudicial crimes,' Kitoka said. The same script Suluhu came into power promising increased freedom of speech and political contestation in the wake of Magufuli's hard authoritarian regime. A steadfast Covid-19 denier, Magufuli died from the disease in March 2021, after instructing citizens to pray or inhale herb-infused steam to protect themselves. Lissu was Magufuli's most vocal critic, and continues to criticise Suluhu's CCM in the same manner. In the lead-up to elections, attacks on Chadema have ramped up once again. In September 2024, a prominent party member, Ali Mohamed Kibau, was forced off a bus, his body later found severely beaten and doused in acid. A worrisome part of the problem is the lack of judicial independence, said Ikoti Lissu. 'Judges are appointed by the president,' he said. 'The intention here is to keep Lissu in custody, without bail, [at least] until the election is over. 'But Tundu is a straightforward person. He's a guy who likes justice. The only choice they have is to intimidate him,' Lissu said. Activists' families call for information On Thursday, the families of Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire said they had become deeply concerned for the activists' safety and called on the Kenyan government to intervene. On Friday morning, Mwangi's lawyer, James WaNjeri, received news that he had been 'dumped at one of the coastal border points, severely tortured'. After managing to make contact with his wife, Njeri, Mwangi was rescued by a human rights group in the area, said WaNjeri. His feet and legs were severely beaten and he struggled to walk. Mwangi has been taken to a medical facility for treatment in Nairobi. Atuhaire is presumed to still be in police custody. The status of her health and wellbeing is unknown. DM
Eyewitness News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Kenyan activist detained in Tanzania
DAR ES SALAAM - A leading Kenyan activist was arrested at his hotel in Tanzania, where he had planned to attend an opposition leader's treason trial, his wife told AFP on Tuesday. Boniface Mwangi -- one of the most prominent campaigners against corruption and police violence in Kenya -- was among several regional activists who travelled to Tanzania to show solidarity with opposition leader Tundu Lissu during his court appearance on Monday. Lissu's Chadema party has been banned from taking part in elections due in October after insisting on reforms. Several activists, including Kenyan presidential candidate Martha Karua, were denied entry at the airport ahead of his latest hearing and deported. Mwangi's wife Njeri told AFP she had not been able to contact him since his arrest. READ: Kenyan lawyer for Tanzania opposition leader arrested: spokesperson "I have been told they are waiting for the government of Tanzania to consult and decide whether to charge him or to deport him," she said. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said Monday that foreign activists would not be allowed to interfere in the country's affairs and urged security organs "not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here". According to Njeri, Mwangi was taken from the Serena Hotel alongside Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire. They spent the night at the central police station in Dar es Salaam, his lawyer Jebra Kambole confirmed to AFP. Activists say the events in Tanzania are part of a wider erosion of democracy across east Africa. In neighbouring Uganda, opposition leader Kizza Besigye is also on trial for treason after being kidnapped in Kenya and taken across the border. Karua, the Kenyan presidential candidate, is serving as his lawyer. She travelled to Uganda on Tuesday ahead of Besigye's latest hearing the following day, and posted online that "entry was without a hitch".
France 24
19-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Tanzania : opposition leader stands trial
Africa 15:12 Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu attempted to reassure his cheering supporters who had gathered to show their support as he appeared in court on treason charges on Monday. His Chadema party accuses the ruling CCM of repression. It has governed the country since 1977 and now looks set to face little serious opposition in October's elections, as Chadema has been disqualified from the race. Several Kenyan politicians were deported while trying to attend Lissu's trial. Also, amidst its biggest funding crisis to date, the World Health Organization is asking its members for an additional $2 billion in annual funding. I spoke to an African health chief who sees turbulent times as an opportunity to improve aid models. Finally, in a historic first for Nigeria, the family film In My Father's Shadow steps into the bright lights of the Cannes Film Festival. The touching tribute to the scant memories of an absent parent by brothers Akinola and Wale Davies Jr is their country's first to make it into the official selection.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tanzania's most prominent opposition leader appears in court on charges of treason
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — Tanzania's most prominent opposition leader appeared in court Monday to face treason charges after calling for electoral reforms ahead of October's general election. A conviction for treason carries a death penalty. But a high-spirited Tundu Lissu wore a T-shirt reading 'no reforms, no election' — echoing the call that led to his April 9 arrest after addressing a public rally. Lissu had embarked on a hunger strike to protest making a virtual court appearance instead of being allowed to show up in person. The politician, chair of the opposition Chadema party, survived an assassination attempt in 2017 and has spent part of his time in exile since then over threats to his life. Lissu during his court appearance encouraged supporters not to be afraid, and made victory gestures. Investigators asked for two more weeks to complete investigations. The trial will proceed on June 2. Supporters of Lissu have faced a crackdown. A Kenyan opposition politician, Martha Karua, who arrived in Tanzania ahead of the hearing, was deported. A former Kenyan chief justice, Willy Mutunga, and three Kenyan activists were detained. Kenya's foreign ministry secretary Korir Sing'oei on Monday called for the release of Mutunga and his delegation. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Monday she would not allow foreign activists to destabilize her country. Her administration has been accused by human rights activists of using heavy-handed tactics against the opposition. The government denies these claims. Hassan will be running for another term in the October election, which also will choose members of parliament. The Chadema party has been critical of the absence of an independent electoral commission and laws that it says favor the ruling party, CCM, which has been in power since Tanzania's independence in 1961. ____ Follow AP's Africa coverage at: The Associated Press
