Tanzania is gripped by fear as authorities intensify their crackdown on dissent ahead of the country’s general elections set for October 29. According to Amnesty International, the government has escalated its repression of opposition figures, journalists, civil society groups, and human rights defenders in a deliberate effort to silence critics, suppress civic engagement, and maintain power.
The general election is expected to be dominated by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party, after the disqualification of key opposition presidential candidates. Last month, Luhaga Mpina was disqualified for a second time from running, while Tundu Lissu of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) party is currently on trial for treason.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has dashed hopes for reform. Instead, under her watch, authorities have continued and intensified repressive practices targeting opposition leaders, civil society, journalists, and dissenting voices, including through assaults, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, with nobody held accountable,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
“Political opponents have faced politically motivated charges and, in some cases, their right to contest the vote has been denied, said Chagutah.
Amnesty’s latest briefing, “Unopposed, unchecked, unjust: The disquiet beneath the 2025 Tanzania vote,” is based on interviews with 43 victims, witnesses, family members of victims, lawyers, and members of civil society, as well as reports verified through multiple independent sources. Tanzanian authorities did not respond to Amnesty’s request for comment.
Amnesty documented widespread and systematic human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of opposition figures and activists. The Tanganyika Law Society recorded 83 cases of people missing under mysterious circumstances as of August 2024. On September 7, 2024, the body of Chadema strategist Ali Mohammed Kibao was found dumped near the Indian Ocean a day after being abducted from a bus in Dar es Salaam. Similarly, Chadema official Dioniz Kipanya disappeared in July after receiving a mysterious phone call, while other activists abducted over a year ago remain missing.
Amnesty is calling for prompt and thorough investigations into all reported abductions, killings, and enforced disappearances, and for those responsible to be held accountable.
The organisation also accuses Tanzanian authorities of weaponizing the criminal justice system against political opponents. Opposition leader Tundu Lissu remains in detention on treason and false publication charges after comments he made online in April 2025. When he appeared in court later that month, dozens of his supporters were arrested, beaten, and allegedly tortured before being dumped in remote areas.
“Out of nowhere, a man who was wielding a long, pointed object jammed it through the inner ankle of my left leg, which left a gaping wound that was squirting blood. Through my bloodied eyes, I noticed that several of my captors were filming the ordeal while laughing and taunting us,” said one survivor.
In the months leading up to the elections, authorities have also introduced new legislation that Amnesty says further suppresses civic space, including amendments to the Political Parties Affairs Laws Act 2024 and the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2024. “Sadly, authorities have spent the last five years ripping apart the constitution,” said Chagutah. “They have ramped up their clampdown on civic space and the right to participate freely in elections through the passing of deeply flawed legislation that not only creates room for human rights violations but also shows their zero tolerance for opposing views both offline and online.”
Authorities have also restricted freedoms of assembly, movement, and expression. Peaceful opposition gatherings are frequently banned or violently dispersed. On May 13, 2025, Chadema Deputy Secretary General Amani Golugwa was arrested at Julius Nyerere International Airport as he prepared to travel to Brussels for a democracy forum. He said police accused him of sharing information with individuals in the European Parliament. “They claimed that the information I shared dishonoured the country and may have contributed to the European Parliament issuing sanctions against Tanzania,” he said.
“Without sustained pressure from Tanzania’s regional and international partners to reverse the clampdown on freedom of expression and human rights generally, the 2025 elections risk becoming a procedural exercise devoid of legitimacy, conducted in an environment where fear, violence, and exclusion have replaced open political participation,” warned Chagutah.
In a 2020 report, “Lawfare: Repression by Law ahead of Tanzania’s General Elections,” Amnesty International had already raised concerns about the shrinking civic space. When Samia Suluhu Hassan became Tanzania’s first female president in 2021 following the death of John Pombe Magufuli, her early reforms raised hopes of a more open political climate. She lifted bans on certain media outlets, reinstated opposition rallies, and pledged constitutional reforms.
However, as the 2025 elections draw near, those hopes have faded. Repression has intensified, and the country now stands on the brink of an election shrouded in fear and uncertainty.
—ChannelAfrica—
