Tanzania’s top opposition figures were released late on Monday, their party said, after being detained by police who prevented a mass protest in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam in the latest crackdown on dissent in the East African nation.Despite an official ban, the opposition Chadema party had vowed to go ahead with the rally over the alleged kidnapping and killing of its members by security forces.Riot police were stationed across the city with water cannon to prevent gatherings, and Chadema’s chairman Freeman Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu were quickly arrested along with dozens of others.Late on Monday, the party said on X that Mbowe and Lissu, as well as at least one other senior party member, had been released on bail.However, Mbowe “decided to remain at the police station until all other members and supporters arrested during (the) protest are granted bail,” Chadema said.The party accuses President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government of returning the country to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.Hassan took over following Magufuli’s sudden death in March 2021 and appeared to signal a more liberal approach, reversing restrictions on opposition rallies and the media.But Chadema accuses the security forces of being behind the recent disappearance of several of its members and the killing of Ali Mohamed Kibao, from its national secretariat, who was found dead earlier this month.Earlier on Monday, Chadema gave a list of nine senior party figures who were arrested, adding that “various leaders from coastal regions and over 40 members” had also been detained.”Demonstration is our constitutional right and we are surprised by the magnitude of force being used by the police to threaten people and suppress our freedom,” Mbowe told supporters earlier on Monday before being led away by police, according to a video shared by the party online.An even bigger crackdown took place in August when the party tried to hold a youth day rally, with Mbowe, Lissu and hundreds of others arrested.- ‘Peaceful protests’ -Rights groups and Western governments, including the United States, have criticised the renewed repression ahead of local elections in November and a general election in late 2025.Lissu has been arrested numerous times and suffered multiple gunshot wounds in an assassination attempt in 2017, after which he fled the country.He returned to Tanzania last year after Hassan lifted the ban on opposition rallies.Police had alleged that the Chadema demonstrations would be violent.But in a speech broadcast on X on Sunday, Mbowe said: “I remind Tanzanians that we are going to hold peaceful protests. We are neither carrying any weapons nor planning to violate the peace as some people allege.”In case some of us will be arrested, hurt or even killed, pray for us and never turn back. We are doing this to make our country a peaceful place to live,” he said.Â
