ARTICLE 19 expresses great concern regarding the unnecessary, disproportionate, and restrictive curtailment of the right to protest in Tanzania during opposition-led demonstrations on 23 September. The authoritaties’ response, characterised by arbitrary mass arrests, highlights a troubling pattern indicative of a deliberate suppression of dissent. Tanzanian opposition has sought constitutional reforms for 30 years, but such incidents call into question hopes for success.
Tanzania is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in 2025. In recent months, the opposition has been staging protests calling on the government to withdraw controversial bills, address soaring living costs, and ensure independent oversight of the electoral process. In August 2024, the police announced a ban on a youth gathering linked to the Party for Democracy and Progress (in Swahili, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo), commonly known as CHADEMA, a centre-right political party, in the city of Mbeya. They accused the party of planning violent demonstrations. CHADEMA officials denounced the ban and called on President Samia Suluhu Hassan to intervene.
According to reports, on 23 September 2024, police arrested Tanzania’s top opposition figures as they sought to block a mass protest in the capital city Dar es Salaam against the alleged killing and abduction of a government critic. Members of CHADEMA were arrested, as confirmed by the party. Over 50 individuals, including journalists covering the protests and party members, were also arrested in the Magomeni area of Dar-es-Salaam.
The protests originally aimed to honour leaders who had been killed under suspicious circumstances or who had been disappeared. The demonstrations were also meant to pressure the government to provide details about their missing members, most notably Ali Mohamed Kibao, a member of CHADEMA, whose mutilated body was found on 7 September, a day after armed men, suspected of being security officers, abducted him from a bus. Kibao was taken near the Kibo area in Tegeta, Dar es Salaam while traveling from Dar es Salaam to Tanga on a Tashriff bus, registration number T 343 EES. Two vehicles, a white Landcruiser and a saloon car, blocked the bus, one in front and the other behind.
In the lead-up to the protests that followed, the police, through the official spokesperson, banned the protests and warned the party that they would take action against anyone who violates the order.
In recent times, there had been optimism that Tanzania was transitioning toward a period of democratic freedom under the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who assumed office following the sudden death of her autocratic predecessor, John Magufuli, in March 2021. Following President Hassan’s inauguration, several favourable developments transpired, including the revocation of media house bans previously imposed by her predecessor, the unfreezing of bank accounts belonging to the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Commission, and the dismissal of charges against Freeman Mbowe, the national chairperson of the CHADEMA party, and three associates who had been detained for nearly seven months on allegations of terrorism-related offencses, among other positive developments in the human rights space. However, recent concerns have surfaced regarding the protection of fundamental human rights within the nation.
On August 2024, Tanzanian police arbitrarily arrested senior leaders of CHADEMA and hundreds of its supporters ahead of the party’s planned International Youth Day celebration on 12 August 12 in the city of Mbeya.
The recent crackdown in Tanzania is deeply concerning as the country gears up for local elections later this year and general elections in 2025. Throughout history, Tanzanian elections have been rife with controversy, especially in terms of upholding and protecting human rights. The rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly are not only enshrined in the Tanzanian constitution but are also protected by regional and international treaties.
Tanzania is a State Party to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (Article 21) and a State Party to the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Article 11), which both provide for the right to peaceful assembly. Under Article 20(1) of the 1977 Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, every person has the freedom to freely and peaceably assemble. However, a ban on political rallies has been in place since mid-2016 and the January 2019 amendments to the Political Parties Act further restricted public assembly. The Police Force and Auxiliary Service Act 2002 also establish that an assembly of three or more people who do not obey orders to disperse when requested will be classified as an ‘unlawful assembly’.
ARTICLE 19 calls on the Tanzanian authorities to reverse this alarming trend and ensure that the political opposition and other government critics can freely exercise these essential rights before, during and after elections. The ARTICLE 19 #FreeToProtest campaign advocates for a human rights-centered approach to the policing of protests and public order management.