By Enyichukwu Enemanna
At least two opposition leaders have been taken into custody by the Tanzanian police in order to botch a planned anti-government demonstration in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, their party and police have said.
In the early hours of Monday, the chairman of main opposition party CHADEMA, Freeman Mbowe was detained on the street, while his deputy Tundu Lissu was taken from his home.
This came amidst plans to stage a peaceful protest against alleged killings and abductions of government critics and activists.
The country’s leader, President Samia Suluhu Hassan is targeting opponents ahead of local elections in December and a presidential election in 2025 in which she is seeking a fresh term, right campaigners have alleged.
In addition to Mbowe and Lissu, additional 12 persons were arrested for flouting an existing ban on the protest.
CHADEMA said on social media platform X that Mbowe was arrested in the Magomeni area of the city when he arrived to lead a peaceful protest.
A convoy of 11 vehicles picked up Lissu and left without saying where he was being taken to, the party said.
Lissu survived being shot 16 times during an assassination attempt in 2016.
Earlier this month another senior CHADEMA member was abducted from a bus, his body later found with signs that he had been beaten and had acid poured on his face.
Heritage Times HT reports that last month, President Hassan named a lion after Lissu, saying it “is always unsettled”.
“Does that lion have a name?” asked President Hassan while visiting the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) . “If not, name him Tundu Lissu.”
“It is because he is always unsettled,” President Hassan said as she gave the lion its new name.
This also comes at a time when opposition leaders in another African country, Tunisia are being sent to jail by President Kais Saied who is seeking re-election in the forthcoming October polls.
An electoral commission instituted by Saied disqualified three prominent presidential candidates, Mondher Znaidi, Abdellatif Mekki and Imed Daimi.
The commission ignored the administrative court, the highest judicial body in election-related disputes, and allowed only two candidates to run against Saied.
One of them, Ayachi Zammel, is in jail after being sentenced to 20 months in prison for allegedly falsifying signatures on election paperwork in what he calls a politically motivated case.
On Sunday, hundreds staged a protest against Saied’s government, accusing him of tightening the grip of authoritarian rule as well as stifling political competition in the country.
