Tanzanian police arrest senior opposition official, hundreds charged with treason

Police in Tanzania arrested a senior official from opposition party Chadema on Saturday and authorities named nine others being sought in relation to violent protests that followed last week’s elections.

Chadema and some human rights activists say that security forces killed more than 1,000 people. The government has called those numbers exaggerated without offering its own death toll.

Chadema said its deputy secretary general, Amani Golugwa, was arrested by police. Golugwa was named by police along with nine others as wanted in connection with the investigation into the unrest, a day after prosecutors charged 145 people with treason.

“The police force, in collaboration with other defence and security agencies, is continuing a serious manhunt to find all who planned, coordinated and executed this evil act,” the police said in a statement.

Hundreds charged with treason

Tanzanian authorities charged hundreds of people with treason over demonstrations around last month’s disputed polls last month, in addition to dozens criminally charged a day earlier in Dar es Salaam, according to numerous charge sheets that became publicly available Saturday.

Wanted suspects include Josephat Gwajima, an influential preacher whose church was deregistered earlier this year after he criticised the government over rights abuses. 

Police also issued arrest warrants for some of the top opposition officials who hadn’t yet been jailed. They include Brenda Rupia, Chadema’s communications director as well as John Mnyika, its secretary-general.

Chadema is Tanzania’s leading opposition party. Its leader, Tundu Lissu, has been jailed for several months and also faces treason charges after he urged electoral reforms.

Disappearances, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings

Authorities face questions over the death toll after security forces tried to quell riots and opposition protests before and after the vote.

The Catholic Church in Tanzania has said that hundreds were likely killed. 

But some believe that the death toll could actually be much higher. The Kenya Human Rights Commission, a watchdog group in the neighbouring country, asserted in a statement on Friday that 3,000 people have been killed by Tanzania’s security forces, with thousands still missing.

“Amidst the ongoing attempted cover-up, facilitated by the continued internet blackout and bandwidth restrictions, this number could be thousands below the actual death toll,” the statement said.

Pictorial evidence in the rights group’s possession shows many victims “bore head and chest gunshot wounds, leaving no doubt these were targeted killings, not crowd-control actions,” it said. 

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who automatically took office as vice president in 2021 after the death of her predecessor, took more than 97% of the vote, according to an official tally. She faced 16 candidates from smaller parties after Lissu and Luhaga Mpina, of the ACT-Wazalendo party, were barred from running.

Rights groups described a climate of repression before voting. There were enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings, according to Amnesty International and others. Tanzania’s government denies the allegations.

The African Union said this week that its observers had concluded that the election “did not comply with AU principles, normative frameworks, and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”

AU observers reported ballot stuffing at several polling stations, and cases where voters were issued multiple ballots. The environment surrounding the election was “not conducive to peaceful conduct and acceptance of electoral outcomes,” the statement said.

Single-party rule has been the norm in Tanzania since the advent of multiparty politics in 1992.

But government critics point out that previous leaders tolerated opposition while maintaining a firm grip on power, whereas Hassan is accused of leading with an authoritarian style that defies youth-led democracy movements elsewhere in the region.

A version of the governing Chama cha Mapinduzi party, which maintains ties with the Communist Party of China, has ruled Tanzania since its independence from Britain in 1961, a streak that Hassan extended with her victory.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)