'I'm unmoved,' Tanzania's Suluhu says amid criticism over 'opposition clampdown'

By Brian Okoth

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan has accused "foreign agents" of attempting to destabilise her country after several Kenyan figures were recently barred from entering Tanzania to attend a court case involving senior opposition politician Tundu Lissu.

Lissu has been charged with treason, an offence that potentially attracts death penalty in Tanzania.

He is accused of inciting rebellion against the state should his calls for electoral reforms before October general election go unheeded.

Kenya's former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and former Justice Minister Martha Karua, a lawyer by profession, were among the senior Kenyan figures who were denied entry to Tanzania.

Mutunga, Karua briefly detained

They were reportedly on a mission to back the incarcerated Lissu.

Karua was briefly detained at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, while Mutunga was briefly held in custody on Monday. The two were deported after their brief arrests.

Kenyan human rights activists Boniface Mwangi and Hanifa Adan were also detained on Monday.

Responding to international pressure over her perceived clampdown on dissent, President Suluhu said she "will not allow any human being to mess up our country."

'I will not give room to detractors': Suluhu

Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Monday, when she launched Tanzania's new foreign policy guidelines, the head of state said: "Let us not be like a grandmother's homestead, where anyone can come and say whatever they wish. They would say: 'Tanzania is existing, while others would say it is not'."

On what she perceives to be foreign interference in Tanzania's internal affairs, President Suluhu said: "We have started witnessing a pattern where activists from other countries within the (East African) region are interfering in our local affairs. If they (activists) have been contained in their own countries, they should not come to destroy our country."

Suluhu added that her government will "not give them (activists) room" to "destabilise" Tanzania.

"They (activists) have already ruined their own countries, they have messed up their countries, and the only country which is yet to be destroyed within the (East African) region is Tanzania. The Tanzanian citizens are secure, peaceful and they live in harmony. There are (concerted) attempts (to destroy that)," she emphasised.

'Undisciplined people from other countries'

The president further asked Tanzania's security apparatus "not to give room to undisciplined people from other countries to come and disobey our laws", asserting that she "will not allow that (disobedience of the Tanzanian law)."

President Suluhu also responded to viral social media posts, which describe her as "intolerant" to dissent.

"I have seen several video clips claiming that I am biased, and all that. What I'm doing is protecting my country as its custodian, and that is what the Tanzanian citizens expect of me. We will not allow any human being to mess up our country, be they citizens of Tanzania or foreigners. We will not give them that room."

Under Suluhu's leadership, calls have mounted for electoral reforms, mainly an overhaul of how election commissioners are appointed.

'No reforms, no election'

Currently, the election commissioners, including the chairperson, are presidential appointees, and their appointments are not subject to a parliamentary vetting process.

Lissu, a fierce critic of the government and a high-ranking member of the opposition Chadema party, has been advocating for a change of how the commissioners are appointed to guarantee a "level playing field." His mantra has been "no reforms, no election."

Lissu, 57, has been arrested on several occasions, and in 2017 he survived an assassination attempt after his vehicle was shot 16 times.

He, thereafter, went into exile in Belgium, and briefly returned to Tanzania in 2020 to run against the then-incumbent President John Magufuli. Lissu lost the election and returned to Belgium.

Chadema party barred from upcoming elections

In January 2023, he announced his return to Tanzania after President Suluhu announced changes that allowed the opposition more freedom.

Lissu's party, Chadema, has been barred from fielding candidates in Tanzania's October 28, 2025 general election, which would see Tanzanians vote for president and members of parliament.

Ramadhani Kailima, the director of elections at Tanzania's Independent National Elections Commission, said that Chadema had failed to sign a code of conduct document that was due on April 12, 2025.

President Suluhu's Chama Cha Mapinduzi party (CCM), which has governed Tanzania since 1977, is widely expected to retain power following the ban on Chadema's participation.

Suluhu, 65, ascended to the presidential seat after the death of Magufuli in March 2021. Until then, Suluhu was Magufuli's deputy.