According to the opposition party Chadema, around 700 people were killed within three days of protests following Tanzania’s October 2025 election. Our local sources fear the true toll is far higher, pointing to additional abuses by so-called “security” forces.
Meanwhile, official results declared Samia Suluhu Hassan the winner with 97.6% of the vote: the very caricature of a rigged election.
This pattern is sadly familiar, mirroring the same authoritarian playbook seen in Chad, Mozambique, and Venezuela: excluding rivals and militarising the ballot. It is how regimes preserve the façade of free choice while strangling its substance.
In Tanzania, this took the classic form of sidelining critics of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (in power since 1977), imposing a curfew, shutting down the internet, and deploying tanks across Dar es Salaam.
What gives us hope amid this bleak picture is regional solidarity, with Kenyan activists attempted to cross the border to stand with their Tanzanian brothers and sisters: civil society supporting civil society. If authoritarian leaders help one another, so should those fighting for freedom.
In light of this, the East African Community, the African Union, and the European Union can no longer look away. Conditioning financial aid and partnerships on genuine respect for human rights and democratic freedoms is the only coherent way to align actions with words, and to have real impact.
