By Our Correspondent,
DAR ES SALAAM
Tanzanian opposition leader who was flown out of his country in coma after a failed assassination attempt on his life in 2017, TUNDU Lissu, is due to arrive in his home country on Monday after three years of treatment in Kenya and Belgium.
Lissu left Belgium today (Sunday)
and is expected to arrive in Tanzania around 1 pm East African time tomorrow.
His return follows his recent
announcement to challenge current President John Magufuli in the upcoming
Tanzanian general election in October.
“I’m flying Ethiopian Airlines. I
have a lot of mixed feelings. I’ve been away for three years. I left the
country unconscious and this is the first time I return home in three years.
So, there are lots of emotions that are hard to express,” Lissu told SAUTI
KUBWA shortly before
his departure.
He is accompanied by a delegation
of eminent persons from reputable international organisations in Europe and the
USA to ensure his safe arrival at Dar es Salaam.
His party, CHADEMA was scheduled
to have its national congress for the nomination of a presidential candidate
most likely him on July 28, but had to postpone it to August 4 in honour
of the passing of country’s former President Benjamin Mkapa on Friday last
week.
While his party has been
mobilising members to give him a warm welcome on his arrival at the Julius
Nyerere International Airport on Monday afternoon, police in the Dar es Salaam
Zone has issued a stern warning against any gathering to that effect.
But CHADEMA Secretary General, John
Mnyika, has issued a counter statement insisting that Lissu’s reception would
go on as planned.
Tanzania, under five years of
Magufuli’s regime, has seen a ruthless clampdown on independent media including
harassment, intimidation and arrests of critics. What’s more, even
disappearances becoming commonplace.
Lissu was shot multiple times and
seriously injured on September 7, 2017, by unknown assailants whilst in his car
in the parking lot of his parliamentary residence in the capital Dodoma.
He received emergency treatment
for hours at Dodoma General Hospital before, for his safety, was air-lifted to
Nairobi Hospital in neighbouring Kenya where he was hospitalised for four
months until January 5, 2018.
Then, he was subsequently flown
to Belgium for further treatment and rehabilitation. Until today, police in Tanzania
have questionably made no arrest whatsoever in connection with Lissu’s shooting.
He was supposed to have flown back home in September 2019 but he postponed his trip on security grounds. The security concerns prevail, and the the world closely watching his homecoming.
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