By Basillioh Rukanga - BBC
News, DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania
The recent wave of abductions,
arrests and the brutal killing of an opposition official in Tanzania seems to
be dimming the ray of political hope that came with President Samia Suluhu
Hassan's rise to power in 2021.CHADEMA party chair person, Freeman Mbowe arrested by police
There was huge relief when
Samia - Tanzania' first female president - took office, with opposition parties
allowed to organise rallies and criticise the government without the fear of
grave repercussions.
But concern is growing that
Tanzania is sliding back to the era of her autocratic predecessor, John
Magufuli.
In the span of weeks, two of
the most senior opposition leaders have been arrested twice, and another
opposition official, Ali Kibao, was abducted, killed and his body doused in
acid by unknown assailants.
“The political situation in
Tanzania is worrisome in the extreme,” said the deputy leader of the main
opposition Chadema party, Tundu Lissu.
He was speaking to the BBC a week before his arrest on Monday, when his party had planned to protest against the killing of Kibao and the alleged disappearance of several other government critics. Lissu was later released on bail.
He was also released on bail
last month, following his arrest on the eve of a banned opposition rally in the
south-western town of Mbeya.
Chadema said about 100 of its
members had been detained to prevent the rally from taking place.
“We're beginning to see the
kind of the wave of repression and state-orchestrated violence which was
characteristic of the period from 2016 to 2020 [during the Magufuli
administration],” Lissu told the BBC.
In 2017, Lissu sustained heavy
injuries during an assassination attempt, when his vehicle was sprayed with at
least 16 bullets.
He was treated abroad and
stayed in exile in Belgium until his return last year to, as he put it, “write
a new chapter” for the country after the president lifted a ban on rallies.
Lissu now sees the promised
reforms as a façade.Tundu Lissu's home surrounded by police few minutes before his arrest early this week
“[There have been] no reforms
whatsoever. No reforms of a democratic nature,” he told the BBC.
The violent incidents are
politically motivated and “associated with the security forces” he alleged,
adding that they were a harbinger of worse to come.
The police have denied
involvement, while the ruling CCM party's secretary-general, Emmanuel Nchimbi
declined to speak to the BBC.
There is no doubt that the
crackdown has sullied the image of the president.
Rights groups and western
diplomats have called for an immediate end to “arbitrary detention” and have
demanded “independent and transparent investigations”.
In her response, the president
warned “outsiders” against meddling in Tanzania's affairs but she also
denounced the killing of Kibao, and ordered speedy investigations.
“Our country is a democracy,
and every citizen has the right to live," she said.
“It is surprising that the
death of our brother Kibao has stirred up such a huge outcry of condemnation,
grief, and accusations of calling the government murderers.
“This is not right. Death is
death. What we Tanzanians must do is stand together and condemn these acts,”
she added.
Tanzanian political analyst
Thomas Kibwana said there appeared to be a lack of good faith between the main
political parties, which has led to negotiations aimed at bringing about
reforms stalling.
He added that while being
confrontational may suit the opposition to win votes, it fuelled tensions.
Samia had indicated that she
was "very open to dialogue" and, from her perspective, Chadema had
"shut the doors to negotiation" and had resorted to protest action,
Mr Kibwana said.
“This is up to both sides -
for them to sit down and come back to the talks,” he added.
At the beginning, Samia was
very much focused on her much-publicised mantra of the four Rs –
reconciliation, resilience, reforms and rebuilding.
Her moves to mend fences with
the opposition and initiate reforms - especially when she did not seem to be
under political pressure to do so - won her praise locally and abroad.
There are still signs of the
positive image she wants to retain.
One billboard in the centre of
the capital, Dodoma, says: “The president of all Tanzanians - irrespective of
their party, religion, ethnicity or gender. Mama [Samia] delivers”.
The billboard bears her
picture sitting in a conversation with Lissu, now one of her fiercest critics.
Other billboards, including in
the largest city Dar es Salaam, show her with other opposition leaders,
depicting her intention to unite people across the political divide.
They appear to be campaign
advertisements ahead of local government elections next month and presidential
and parliamentary elections a year later.
The elections will be her
first real test. She was Magufuli's deputy, and inherited the presidency
following his sudden death during the coronavirus pandemic.
Like Magufuli, she belongs to
the CCM party, which has won every election it has contested since independence
from Britain in 1961.
According to the
second-biggest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, Samia's reform drive may have
been stymied by the CCM’s fear that it may lose elections.
"We have heard a CCM
bigwig saying that if she had maintained that pace which she came in with, she
would lose the country to the opposition," party leader Dorothy Semu told
the BBC.
"So maybe she absorbed
that fear that if you reform, you will eventually end giving in to the
opposition," she added.
But Semu feels the political
climate is better than during the Magufuli era, even if government officials
sometimes acted like “they are doing us a favour”.
“We have now a more open civic
space. We can talk about politics freely. We can discuss as political parties.
We can take part in political rallies. We can organise meetings,” she told the
BBC.
Semu added that as elections
approach, “we are hopeful, but we not assured everything is going to be OK”.
Lawyer and activist Fatma
Karume told the BBC that genuine reform hinged on overhauling the country's
laws so that the president has less power.
"In Tanzania we have
something called an imperial presidency," she said.
“All we have is a head of
state who is less oppressive… let's say, not as comfortable as Magufuli in
using the oppressive powers of the state.” - BBC
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