ARUSHA, Tanzania
One of Tanzania’s main opposition leaders and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu has been released on bail hours after he was arrested by police for allegedly holding an illegal gathering.
Lissu, vice chairman of
Tanzania’s largest opposition party CHADEMA, was arrested from a hotel along
with other party leaders in northern Tanzania’s Arusha region on Sunday and
released later that evening, Lissu’s party wrote on social media platform X.
Lissu has been holding
political rallies across the country since returning
from exile in January, criticizing President Samia Hassan’s
administration for its human rights record, forceful eviction of Masai community, need for new constitution and its handling of a controversial
ports management deal.
He returned from exile after Hassan lifted a six-year ban on political rallies. He had been in Belgium since he fled in 2020 after losing the presidential election to John Magufuli.
In June 2016, Magufuli
prohibited elected officials from holding rallies outside their constituencies.
The former president argued that election season was over and rallies were a
waste of time and a distraction from development.
This soon became a blanket ban
for political gatherings as the police turned down opposition requests to
organise rallies. In some cases, even internal party meetings were disrupted
with leaders and their followers harassed and arrested.
But Magufuli himself kept
holding rallies and crisscrossing the country by road with his entourage,
making numerous impromptu stops to address locals and make off-script
decisions.
Hassan, his successor, has
made moves to reconcile with the opposition, including lifting the ban. But she
was also seen as continuing some of the draconian policies of her predecessor –
including a seven-month
imprisonment of Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe on charges of “terrorism
financing”.
Police said on Sunday that Lissu and three other people were detained for questioning about accusations they were holding an unlawful assembly and preventing police from doing their job.
Lissu was scheduled to hold
several rallies in Loliondo and Ngorongoro districts where the government is
carrying eviction process against indigenous Masai community from their ancestral
land.
The Masai were subjected to
forced evictions in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022 against their will by numerous
state security forces, who were accompanied by representatives of a private
company licensed to operate tourism activities, including trophy hunting, in
Loliondo.
This comes a week after the
Tanzanian government prevented three European Union politicians from visiting
the country to investigate the evictions of Masai people.
The three MEPs from the Green
Party, Michele Rivasi, Claude Gruffat and Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, said
that less than 24 hours before they were due to set off last Monday, they were
informed that the visit had been postponed.
“Yesterday, I should have
travel to Tanzania to set up an independent observation mission following
reports of human rights violations against Maasai. The government denied us
entry to the territory, 24 hours before our departure.” She said on her Twitter
page adding that it is an unacceptable decision.
Tanzania have a history of being pushed off ancestral land to make way
for so-called protected areas, including the famous Serengeti National Park.
Since at least 2009 the government has used a range of abusive tactics to displace about 150,000 people across Ngorongoro district, a tourist hotspot. And last year, the government has restricted their access to important grazing areas and water sources, potentially displacing up to 70,000 residents of Loliondo.
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