Tanzania: “They Want to Silence Me” – Tundu Lissu, the Man Who Refused to Bow.

Dar es Salaam – The last time Tanzanians saw Tundu Lissu free, he was standing on a makeshift wooden platform in Mbinga town, telling a crowd of supporters that “without a new electoral law, the October vote will be a joke.”

Minutes later, anti-riot police fired tear-gas, bundled him into the back of a white Land-Cruiser and sped off. On Thursday morning the 52-year-old opposition leader appeared in Kisutu Court in a blue prison tunic, charged with TREASON – a capital offence in Tanzania.

What exactly did he say?

State prosecutors read from a charge sheet claiming Lissu told supporters on 3 April: “We will spoil this election… we will inspire rebellion. That is the only way to get change.”

Lissu’s lawyers do not deny the words; they deny the crime. “Urging voters to boycott a flawed poll is free speech, not sedition,” his lead counsel Rugemeleza Nshala told journalists outside the court.

Shot 16 times, jailed twice, barred from running.

This is not Lissu’s first brush with danger. In 2017 unknown gunmen pumped 16 bullets into his car; he spent 15 months in hospital and now walks with a cane.

He returned from exile in Belgium last year after President Samia Suluhu Hassan promised a “new political climate.”

Yet when CHADEMA tried to register him for the October presidential race, the electoral commission struck his name off the list, along with the entire party’s candidates for parliament.

A pattern of “law-fare”?

Human-rights groups say Lissu is only the biggest name in a wider squeeze:
- 13 CHADEMA district chairmen arrested in the past six weeks.
- Four privately owned newspapers suspended for “incitement” headlines.
- Kenyan activists who flew in to observe the trial were denied entry at Julius-Nyerere airport.

Amnesty International calls the case “politically motivated” and demands his immediate release.

Government: “No one is above the law”

Information minister Mobhare Matinyi insists the charges are “a pure legal matter.” “Tanzania is a rule-of-law country. Let the courts decide,” he told state TV.

But the magistrate has already ruled that Lissu must remain in maximum-security Segerea prison until the next hearing on 24 November, dashing any chance of campaigning.

Street talk

In the teeming Kariakoo market, vendor Asha Juma sums up the mood:
“They are scared of him because he speaks what we all whisper. If this is treason, then we are all traitors.”

What next?

- If convicted, Lissu could face death by hanging – though Tanzania has not carried out an execution since 1994.
- Western diplomats warn the trial will “poison” observer missions to October’s vote.
- CHADEMA youth wing vows “no reforms, no election” street protests starting next week.

For now, the man who once called himself “the unkillable voice” spends 22 hours a day in a 3 m-by-4 m cell, reading legal briefs by a tiny window and, according to guards, still refusing to plead for a presidential pardon.

Key numbers

- 1 opposition party barred from ballot
- 16 bullets survived
- 300,000+ followers on his banned Twitter account
- 42 days (and counting) behind bars

Quote of the day

“Prison doors do not silence ideas; they only amplify them.”
– Tundu Lissu, to fellow inmates on arrival.