AFRICA/TANZANIA - Arbitrary arrests and disappearances of opposition figures are worrying

Monday, 2 December 2024 politics kidnappings violence

TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF

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Dar es Salaam (Agenzia Fides) - Arbitrary arrests, political opponents who disappear without a trace or are brutally murdered by mysterious assassins. Worrying incidents are occurring in Tanzania. The case of Deusdedith Soka, a young member of the conservative opposition party CHADEMA (Party for Democracy and Progress), who was kidnapped by a group of men on August 18, 2024 in the Buza area along with two other party colleagues, Jacob Godwin Mlay and Frank Mbise, attracted particular attention.
Since then, nothing has been heard from the three men. Meanwhile, security forces are suspected because one of his cell phones, seized by police since September 2023 and never reactivated, was used after his disappearance to send a message saying that Soka intended to leave the country due to internal struggles within his party. Soka's disappearance was preceded by that of Dioniz Kipanya, the secretary of CHADEMA in Sumbawanga district, on July 26, 2024. According to police, the politician was not kidnapped from his home by alleged military personnel, as some witnesses claimed, but rather left the house after receiving a call telling his family members that he was on his way to an appointment. In at least one case, police admitted to being responsible for the disappearance of an opposition politician. This is Kombo Twaha Mbwana, the chairman of CHADEMA in Handeni, who disappeared on June 15. Police authorities confirmed on July 14 that the politician had been arrested for posting "offensive material" on social media. In another case, it is the abducted person himself who is blaming the police. Edgar Mwakabela was illegally arrested in Dar es Salaam on June 23 and was subsequently taken to Oysterbay police station in handcuffs and blindfold, where he was reportedly abused and tortured. He was then transferred to another police station in Arusha, more than 360 miles north of Dar es Salaam. He was finally taken to Katavi National Park on June 27, where he was brutally tortured before being left with severe gunshot wounds to the head. Mwakabela blames the police for his ordeal, claiming that the officers left him in the park because they thought he was dead.
This was not the case with Ali Kibao, a member of the CHADEMA secretariat, who was taken from a bus by armed men on 6 September while travelling from Dar es Salaam to Tanga. The next day, Kibao's body was found on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, with traces of torture and acid on his face. On 21 October, just over a month before the local elections on 27 November, Aisha Machano, the secretary of the CHADEMA women's movement, was kidnapped in Kibiti in the east of the country and found alive in a nearby forest but with signs of abuse. The ruling CCM (Revolutionary Party) won the local elections by a large majority. The Deputy Minister of Regional Administration and Local Government, Mohamed Mchengerwa, who was responsible for organizing the elections, reported that the CCM won more than 99% of the country's municipal seats and seats in the regional parliaments. The CCM and its predecessor, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), have been in power in Tanzania since independence in 1961. The opposition CHADEMA, meanwhile, complains that the election was marked by irregularities, violence and electoral fraud. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 2/12/2024)