Samia Suluhu Hassan Locks Up Her Main Opponent for Four Years

Four years in prison. For words. That is the sentence that has just struck Tundu Lissu, leader of Chadema, Tanzania's main opposition party. A man arrested in April 2025 on a charge of treason, an offence punishable by death, has now been convicted of "incitement." The court did not find enough evidence of treason. So it traded a gallows threat for a term of imprisonment, as if the justice system could change its label without changing its target.

Let us ask what this says about Tanzania today. A country that presents itself to its partners as a model of stability in East Africa jails its most credible adversary. A country that boasts of its inheritance from Julius Nyerere, the father of independence, silences democratic debate through procedure. We must look at this squarely, and not reassure ourselves with official communiqués.

One arrest, shifting charges, one target

Tundu Lissu is no stranger. A lawyer and former MP, a fixture of the opposition for years, he survived an armed attack in Dodoma, the administrative capital, in 2017, in which he reportedly took several bullets. For years he defended Chadema's right to exist, to stand for election, and to be heard. Anyone who knows Tanzanian politics knows this man was never a lukewarm tribune.

His arrest in April 2025 opened a legal sequence that exposed the core of the problem. First came treason, with the prospect of a death sentence. Then, after that case collapsed, a charge of incitement linked to the October 2025 elections, elections Chadema was unable to contest on fair terms. The party was kept at arm's length, its candidates obstructed, its activists prosecuted. And when protest erupted, the response was brutal. Testimonies and human rights organisations speak of hundreds dead. The figures remain disputed, but one thing is beyond debate: citizens who demanded an honest vote were shot at.

This is the heart of the matter. An election in which a principal rival is excluded, followed by bloody repression, followed by a trial whose charge changes shape as it falls apart. This is not justice searching for truth. It is a power searching for a formula to keep its enemy behind bars.

What the facts say, and what they do not

The court acknowledged that the treason charge did not hold. It is a quiet admission, but a heavy one. The gravest charges were dropped for lack of sufficient evidence, leaving only a conviction for incitement, whose legal fragility is plain to see. Incitement to disrupt an election: where are the calls to violence, where are the concrete acts, where is the causal link between Lissu's words and the disorder cited? The defenders of the state will say they have proven otherwise. We demand that they show it publicly, with the evidence in hand.

There is an irony that should trouble every judge in this country. The only route still open to Lissu is an appeal, and bail is now possible. In other words, the man could walk free. But the possibility of release does not wash away the injustice of a detention built on charges that have already collapsed once. A justice system that wakes up only when the death penalty is no longer on the table cannot claim to be independent.

International reactions came from British and European parliamentarians, who described the trial as politically motivated and called for the immediate release of the opposition leader. We will not let anyone turn that position into a lecture on morality from London or Brussels. But neither will we accept being told that outside criticism is interference when it defends exactly the principles Tanzania has signed. The Tanzanian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and association. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which Tanzania has ratified, protects the right to take part in political life. If these texts mean anything, they must apply to Tundu Lissu.

A retreat that did not begin yesterday

This drama was not born in 2025. In 2019, Tanzania withdrew its declaration allowing individuals and NGOs to bring cases directly before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. It was the closing of a door that citizens had courageously opened. When a state refuses its own citizens the right to challenge their treatment before a regional court, it sends a clear message: accountability must remain an internal exercise, controlled, and therefore emptied of substance.

This drift affects the whole region. When a country that presents itself as an example locks down political space, its neighbours see a permission slip. When an emblematic opponent is punished for his words, every activist understands that they too can be punished. Democracy does not always die in a spectacular coup. It is often smothered in well-dressed trials.

What Tanzania should do, and what we must demand

The solution is no mystery. It already exists on this continent. Botswana built its prosperity on credible institutions, peaceful alternation of power, and a judiciary that does not bow to the government of the day. Mauritius built a robust rule of law, where the opposition wins elections and the courts rule without instructions from the palace. Ghana has repeatedly shown that electoral transitions can unfold calmly and with respect for the verdict of the ballot box. These countries are not perfect. But they demonstrate that a free economy, protected property, and transparent institutions are not Western luxuries. They are the conditions for social peace and investment.

Concretely, Tanzania must do three things. First, drop the prosecutions against Tundu Lissu and his co-accused, or at the very least guarantee a fair, rapid and public appeal, with release on bail without abusive conditions. Second, conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths during the post-election crackdown, publish the findings, and sanction those responsible, whether in uniform or in robes. Third, restore the full participation of Chadema and all parties in political life before the next electoral deadlines.

And the others? The African Union, the East African Community and SADC cannot content themselves with lukewarm statements. They must demand Lissu's release, send observers to the court proceedings, and remind everyone that Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union prohibits unconstitutional changes of government and promotes good governance. As for Dar es Salaam's financial partners, they should stop smiling at infrastructure projects while opposition figures rot in prison. Economic cooperation that turns a blind eye to repression is not partnership. It is complicity.

To you, who are reading this

You can do something. Share this article, but above all, demand accountability. Write to your MPs, to your representatives in the Pan-African Parliament, to your government. Insist that they raise the case of Tundu Lissu at every diplomatic meeting with Tanzania. Support the Tanzanian journalists and lawyers fighting on the ground, often at the price of their own freedom. Reject the idea that democracy is a luxury for Africans.

Tundu Lissu has been sentenced to four years for speaking. If we accept that in silence, we accept that speech is a crime on our continent. We do not accept it. Free Tundu Lissu. Hold elections where no one is excluded. And let every Tanzanian know that Africa is not built on cells filled with dissenting voices, but on institutions brave enough to listen to those who say no.

Based on reporting by ACSS-EMAIL