Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Former Tanzanian opposition leader, Godbless Lema and his family, who fled Kenya a month ago fearing for his life, has been granted asylum in Canada in a move highlighting a deep political rapture in the east African country.
Lema, who has been living in Nairobi along with his wife and three children, has arrived in Canada.
George Wajackoyah, a Kenyan lawyer who represented Lema, said Thursday the outspoken politician was granted asylum with assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He has attained refugee status.
“I want to thank President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Kenya government for being an observer of human rights,” said Wajackoyah.
Leaders Exodus
The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Arusha Urban has become the second opposition leader to flee the country after the disputed October 28th election, which observers say was riddled by widespread irregularities and fraud.
The level of persecution of political opposition rose dramatically in Tanzania after President Magufuli’s re-election.
Tundu Lissu, who contested in the presidential race on the ticket of Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) fled to Europe in November, fearing for his life.
He was reportedly stripped off the security detail he had during the election and he also claimed to have had death threats.
Disputed Elections
President John Magufuli, who was running on the ticket of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) was declared the winner with 84 percent of the votes against Lissu, who garnered 13 percent of the vote, the national electoral commission announced.
Speaking to Ubuntu Times before his departure Lema said he doesn’t wish to return to Tanzania because he would endanger his own life and the lives of his immediate family.
Lema, who served two terms as an opposition legislator described the east African country as a “Persecution paradise”.
“I am not a criminal running away from justice, but a bonafide political leader escaping repression and possible assassination attempt,” he said.
Car Trackers
According to him, back in Arusha, his car was constantly being trailed by unmarked vehicles, and his family has repeatedly received death threats that were hard to ignore.
Lema who sneaked into Kenya incognito through the Namanga border aboard a Taxi was intercepted by Kenyan authorities and briefly detained at Kajiado County.
His plight was raised in the local media, prompting global human rights charity—Amnesty International to urge Kenyan authorities to rescind any plans to deport him to the country where Lema claimed his life would be in danger.
“Godbless Lema and his family must not be forcibly returned to political persecution and likely imprisonment,” said Irungu Houghton, Amnesty International Kenya’s Executive Director.
A Friend In Need
Lema is among several members of the main opposition party-CHADEMA who were arrested and detained ahead of Magufuli’s inauguration in November.
Chadema’s national chairman Freeman Mbowe traveled all the way to Nairobi to bid him, his family farewell.
Since taking office in 2015, President John Magufuli’s security forces have cracked down on the media, critical civil society organizations with the police arbitrarily arresting senior opposition politicians on charges related to sedition.
Harare — In a move that has been taken with a pinch of salt by local pro-democracy activists, the Zimbabwean regime on November 20 announced that it had dished out broadcasting licenses to six more television stations out of the 14 that had applied to be licensed.
Presently, just the Zimbabwe Television run by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is the only national television station in Zimbabwe.
Amongst the successful applicants for a license, was the State-controlled, Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN).
ZTN is a sister company of the Zimbabwe Newspapers 1980 Private Limited, controlled by this country’s government notorious for stifling media democracy for decades.
Owned by business tycoon James Makamba, Zimbabwe’s only privately owned broadcasting station, Joy TV, which started in July 1998 was shut down on 31 May 2002 after a lease agreement the TV station had with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was annulled on the grounds that it desecrated the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act of this country.
Two decades later, Zimbabwe’s regime has licensed other players in the television broadcasting industry, however with pro-democracy activists skeptical about the government’s sincerity in its move to license the new players.
“The regime has merely licensed its own TV stations that will further step up praise-singing for it (the regime) as it perpetuates more rights abuses here,” Claris Madhuku who heads the Platform for Youth Development, told Ubuntu Times.
Under Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule, journalists like Hopewell Chin’ono have been arrested ostensibly for inciting public violence although he had mid this year exposed alleged government corruption involving Coronavirus supplies implicating the President’s son Colin Mnangagwa.
However, announcing the licensing of the six TV stations, Charles Sibanda, chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), hailed the move which he said was the liberation of airwaves in the African nation.
“The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe would like to express appreciation to all those who showed interest and indeed the general public for actively participating in this historic process of facilitating the opening up of broadcasting airwaves for multiplicity in television services,” Sibanda told reporters in the capital Harare.
But other applicants like Heart & Soul Television which is owned by Trevor Ncube one of President Mnangagwa’s advisors, was not amongst the successful applicants although Jester Media trading as 3K TV managed to get a license despite the fact that the company falls under the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) which publishes the Daily News, an anti-government newspaper.
Ncube is the owner of Alpha Media Holdings which publishes newspapers deemed to be hostile to the Zimbabwean regime — Newsday, The Zimbabwe Independent, and The Standard.
Other TV stations that were given licenses are Rusununguko Media’s NRTV, Acacia Media Group’s Kumba TV, Fairtalk Communications’ Ke Yona TV, and Channel Dzimbahwe’s Channel D.
Harare, Zimbabwe — Fiona Nyaungwa (24) still recalls marching towards the State House in Harare on the 18th of November in 2017 to put pressure on the then Zimbabwean ruler, the late Robert Mugabe to resign.
Nyaungwa, then a student at the University of Zimbabwe was supposed to attend lessons but she could not miss the historic event impelled by the military.
“My neighbor convinced me to witness this historical event of our time in the hope that we were being liberated from bondage,” she said.
But she is quick to confess her fear of Zimbabwe’s dreaded military.
“I was afraid the military was going to open fire on innocent civilians,” she told Ubuntu Times.
In the city center, she joined millions of Zimbabweans around the country who were calling for the resignation of Robert Mugabe — the man who had ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since its independence from Britain in 1980.
Four days before, Nyaungwa had seen armored vehicles taking strategic positions in the city center from Inkomo Barracks about 35 kilometers northwest of Harare.
She did not know what was happening until the morning of the 15th of November 2017. ZTV, the country’s only State television broadcasting station and radio stations had been taken over by the military under the cover of the darkness.
While the drama unfolded, they had placed Mugabe under house arrest and Major General Sibusiso Moyo calmed the nation: “We wish to assure the nation that (President Mugabe) and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed,” he said.
“We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.”
Mugabe together with his wife Grace and a faction of Zanu-PF G40 members including outspoken former Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao – Mugabe’s nephew and Saviour Kasukuwere were immediately labeled criminals – accused of corruption in Zimbabwe. Their persecution started.
The coup led to the ousting of Mugabe and paved the way for the ascendency to power of axed Vice President Emmerson Mnangangwa – the man who for many years was Mugabe’s confidante.
The coup that ousted late President Robert Mugabe led to the ascendency of axed Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to power. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
Young people like Nyaungwa saw Mnangagwa as a savior who would build a new nation where democracy, rule of law, and respect of human rights thrived. He carried Zimbabwe’s hopes of burying years of living under fear, years of political turmoil, and rebirth of a nation that was once praised for its economic boom. They welcomed the ouster of Mugabe.
“Mugabe’s regime was oppressive. There was no freedom of speech and expression. I needed change. My hopes were to see a democratic Zimbabwe. Under Mugabe there was nepotism and corruption,” Nyaungwa said.
Three years after the military-assisted takeover and a disputed election in 2018 Zimbabweans’ hopes have faded away as it becomes apparent to many that the coup was just a change of power and not a rotten system.
After outlawing the use of multi-currency in mid-2019 and introducing its local currency the Zimbabwean dollar, the latter has been losing value against major currencies.
As of November this year, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate was nearly 385 percent, according to Steve Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.
The country faces a myriad of problems.
There is a shortage of medicine in public hospitals which has left the majority of Zimbabwe’s population struggling to access health care.
The Mnangagwa-led administration, after dumping its “Open for Business” Public Relations stunt, has adopted the removal of sanctions mantra as the solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
The government thrives on propaganda and blame-shifting. The Mnangagwa regime has even dedicated the 25th of October annually as a day to campaign against sanctions.
The United States and its allies imposed “targeted” sanctions on Harare in 2002 following a chaotic Land Reform Programme that saw blacks taking back their land from about 4500 white farmers during the Mugabe era.
But, Washington through its embassy in Harare has insisted that Mnangagwa should reform and respect human rights.
Admire Mare, a senior lecturer at Namibia University of Science and Technology said Zimbabwe’s economic malaise is a combination of both external and internal sanctions.
“Internal sanctions are rooted in deep-seated corruption, bad governance, unending electioneering, winner takes it all politics and polarization,” he told Ubuntu Times.
He said the current situation highlights that the regime has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing about the modus operandi of “Mugabeism”.
“The intensity of rule by law and abuse of the criminal justice system is unprecedented. It casts doubt on the sincerity of the regime to reform the political and electoral system,” Mare said.
The government has been using force on citizens since 2018 thereby closing the democratic space.
In August 2018 the military shot dead six civilians in the streets of Harare who were demonstrating against the electoral body which was delaying to announce the country’s first elections after Mugabe.
In January 2019, the military was deployed to quell demonstrators, who were protesting nationwide against Mnangagwa’s decision to hike fuel prices by 150 percent, resulting in the death of 17 people and leaving hundreds injured.
This year, the government using its security forces committed gross human rights under the guise of enforcing measures imposed in March to slow the spread of the global pandemic, Coronavirus.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using force to silence critics. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe / Ubuntu Times
From March to September 2020 there were over 1,200 human rights violations cases ranging from unlawful arrests, assaults, threats and intimidations, harassment of citizens and journalists, and extrajudicial killings across the country, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, a human rights advocacy movement.
Dr. Wellington Gadzikwa, a journalism lecturer and academic at a local university, said the presence of the military in civilian issues which are normally handled by the police has increased and reports of the members of the army violating human rights have increased more than during the Mugabe era.
“I think most people expected Mnangagwa to be radically different from Mugabe but the frustration with lack of change has led many to perceive that the new leader is worse off than the former,” he said.
Njabulo Ncube, the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum coordinator told Ubuntu Times that media reforms have been a fraud in the country.
“While (Mnangagwa regime) purports to be rolling out media reforms, it is sneaking in draconian laws that criminalizes the journalism profession,” he said.
“Mugabe was subtle in stifling media freedoms but Mnangagwa is brazen.”
Nyaungwa is regretting joining the march that forced Mugabe to resign in March 2017.
“The march brought corruption and the suppression of the freedom of expression,” she said.
Nnamdi Okorie said in late October, after the widespread protests against police brutality in Nigeria resulted in days of tumult in Oyigbo, a crowded suburb of the oil hub southern city of Port Harcourt, soldiers moved from house to house and searched for members of the separatist pro-Biafra group, IPOB.
Local authorities had blamed members of the state-banned Indigenous People of Biafra for the rampage that saw police stations and army patrol vehicles torched and six soldiers and four police officers killed in the town.
When soldiers arrived the Okories home, they wanted to take his 22-year-old son away, he said. But the young man, Obinna, refused to board the army’s Hilux pickup and tried to escape. He was shot dead and his body taken away by the soldiers, sending residents who witnessed the killing fleeing for safety.
“They should please give me my son’s body either dead or alive; I am committing all things to God who is the ultimate judge,” Okorie told Ubuntu Times, weeping.
For the days that followed, the River State government imposed a round-the-clock curfew and troops barricaded the area, leaving residents without access to water and food as security forces combed the area and randomly attacked locals, residents said.
“It was very tense. People could not come in or go out of the place for days. It was more like a war zone,” said Ike Azubuike, an oil worker who lives in the town.
Enforcing the curfew brought more casualties. Remigus Nkwocha said her husband who had gone on October 25 to a nearby market to purchase food items they could use through the curfew period, was hit by a stray bullet fired by soldiers implementing the lockdown. He died afterwards in the hospital.
Weeping in the midst of her children and sympathizers, Mrs. Nkwocha told Ubuntu Times her biggest worry was how to raise their four children. “I’m finished. I can’t bear it alone,” she said.
With access restored to the area after weeks of a punishing curfew which the government said was aimed at checking the activities of IPOB, a group that seeks an independent state of Biafra, the extent of the bloody raid has become clearer and residents have narrated their ordeal at the hands of security agents.
All the residents selected at random and interviewed separately said soldiers searched for members of IPOB and shot indiscriminately and killed people in an apparent reprisal for the killing of soldiers. At least 20 people would have died in the raid, they said.
The army said its troops “acted professionally” and denied attacking residents. The spokesperson for 6 Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Major Charles Ekeocha, said the army only entered houses that were possible hideouts for hoodlums, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Facing criticisms, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state denied ordering soldiers to kill residents in the community, but insisted he will “not fold my arms and watch criminals destroy my state.”
Protests and Rampage
The Oyigbo incident has become the latest bloody incident involving troops in the aftermath of the campaign against police brutality in Nigeria. The #EndSARS protests lasted weeks seeking the dissolution of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The protests found appeal with the country’s large population of unemployed youths and university students forced to stay at home due to lecturers’ strike.
Burnt trucks residents say were military pickups razed by hoodlums. Credit: Ubuntu Times
As the protests became a rallying point for many, authorities claimed groups with sectional interests tried to exploit the campaigns for underhand motives. The demonstrations culminated on October 20 when soldiers opened fire on protesters at the Lekki Tollgate in the commercial capital, Lagos, killing at least 12, according to Amnesty International.
The turmoil that followed the shooting left the country in shock. Thugs set fire to public and private properties in Lagos and other cities and attacked security personnel. In Oyigbo, the government said IPOB, which has tried to revive the defunct 1960s-era Biafra Republic, went on a rampage and razed police offices and killed officers.
The Police Area Command Oyigbo set on fire by hoodlums before attacks by soldiers. Credit: Ubuntu Times
An intervention by the army was thwarted as a patrol team sent from a nearby military base was overrun. Six soldiers and four police officers died.
“Since its proscription, the group has carried out intermittent processions in parts of Rivers State, especially in Oyigbo and some notorious suburbs in Port Harcourt Local Government Areas,” Gov Wike said in a broadcast on October 30 referring to IPOB.
“This evil, wicked and audacious action resulted in the unnecessary loss of scores of lives, including soldiers and police officers, and the destruction of both public and private properties, including police stations, court buildings and business premises.”
In interviews, residents said hoodlums also raided a courthouse and vandalized shops. Looting subsided after police and soldiers were dispatched to the area and a 24-hour curfew imposed. The attack soon degenerated to a confrontation between the thugs and soldiers, leading to the killing of soldiers, according to witnesses.
Killing the Innocent
That was the trigger of the siege. Residents said the army deployed more troops, who without systematically going after the attackers who by this time had fled the area, descended on unarmed residents.
Locals said at least 200 soldiers were deployed to cordon the bubbling district. They arrived in armored vehicles and went house to house and picked young men and loaded them into their trucks and took them to their base in Obehie in neighboring Abia State. Those who resisted were shot, according to witnesses.
Most residents refused to give their names or allow to be quoted over safety concerns. One elderly man told Ubuntu Times how a group of young men chased by soldiers around the Kom-Kom area ran into the Imo River swamp having reached the end of the road. He said soldiers fired into the water, killing the fleeing men.
At Afam Road roundabout, Ubuntu Times saw a burnt Volvo wagon car which residents said was used as an ambulance to convey a corpse to the mortuary when it ran into soldiers. They said after the driver explained his mission to the soldiers, he was chased off and the vehicle set ablaze.
Residents said soldiers killed several young people and their bodies taken away. Most of those detained and taken to the military based were yet to be released when an Ubuntu Times reporter visited the area.
Monica Chikwem, a resident of the area, narrated how her pastor’s son, a mechanical engineering graduate who recently got a job, was killed by a stray bullet. She said his body was left at home for two days since there was no way to move his body to the mortuary due to the soldiers’ blockade of all entry and exit points. The body was eventually smuggled to the mortuary through a bush path.
Chikwem said for 10 days, they lived in constant fear as bullets fired by soldiers fell occasionally on their roof. With total curfew in place, they had nowhere to buy food and other consumables and survived on eating premature crops nearby.
Another resident, John Nworgu, narrated how bullets pierced through his son’s leg who was trying to go through a back road to buy food for the family. Nworgu’s son survived.
During a recent visit to Oyigbo after the siege was lifted, one of the most talked about deaths was that of Queen Nwazuo, a 26-year-old polytechnic student, who was struck in the neck while at a hair salon. Nwazuo died before she could get medical assistance.
A poster showing a fatal injury on Queen Nwazuo, one of the persons struck by a stray bullet fired by soldiers. Credit: @OgbonnayaMbaka on Twitter
An Ubuntu Times reporter said almost all the homes he entered and people approached for interviews had tales of woes about the siege and accused the army of highhandedness.
On November 3, the Guardian, one of the country’s most respected and popular newspapers, reported how its reporter visited a house in Oyigbo and saw four soldiers knocking hysterically on a gate to a building. The soldiers screamed: “If you don’t come out and open the gate, we will burn the building and kill you and nothing will happen,” according to the paper.
When one of the residents finally opened the gate, the troops ordered her to call out everyone in the compound and as residents gathered, one soldier yelled: “The army is very angry with this community because your people killed our colleagues, we are here to search for certain persons and you should obey everything we say, anyone that argues or disobeys, we will kill the person.” However, after a search of the compound, the paper said officers left, saying: “Our target person is not here”.
Ethnic Concerns
Residents interviewed by Ubuntu Times said they suspected the military operation had an ethnic undertone, claiming that soldiers had asked some men they arrested if they were Igbo. The claim, not independently verified, appeared to draw strength from comments by the governor and historical sentiments.
A place of worship, synagogue, razed and destroyed by soldiers in Oyigbo. Credit: Ubuntu Times
In his broadcast, Wike said “Rivers State belongs to the indigenous people of Rivers State” and warned that “as a stranger element with strange political ideology therefore, IPOB has no legal or moral right to invade Rivers State or any part therefore at its behest; to disturb public peace, and subject lives and property to violence or threat of destruction under any guise.” He added: “We appeal to leaders of the various ethnic groups residents in the State to ensure that their members respect the sensibilities of our people and refrain from provocations and acts of hooliganism that could breach peace and security in the State.”
The group, IPOB, is predominantly Igbo, and the Rivers government said the group has used Oyigbo, which has a large Igbo population, as an outpost. The first attempt to create Biafra from Nigeria in the 1960s resulted in a civil war that killed over a million people. Since then, the Nigerian state has brutally crushed groups that align with that cause, often killing many.
Over years too, non-Igbo groups in the region have rejected the agitation for Biafra, and some Igbo cluster tribal groups have even denied having the same tribal roots with the Igbo, despite apparent linguistic ties. Some Igbo activists say the town raided by the soldiers, originally called Obigbo (meaning the heart of Igbo) was renamed Oyigbo in the early 1980s to spite the group.
In the chaos that unfolded in Oyigbo, some of the buildings reportedly razed by troops were synagogues assumed to be the worship place of IPOB members. The IPOB group has identified as Jewish and its members worship in synagogues, noticeably varied from the predominant practice of Christianity in the area. One synagogue was razed by troops near the timber market and another at Okpulor was demolished on November 9. But those interviewed said the synagogues were open for all persons especially the Sabbatarians, beyond IPOB.
Authorities Deny
Amidst criticisms following the attack, Gov Wike denied ordering soldiers to kill Igbo in the town. Speaking on television on November 2, the governor said the accusation was “politically-motivated.”
“It’s not true that I ordered the military to kill Igbo in Oyigbo. So, what about the Igbo living elsewhere in the state? Are they also being killed?” He added: “I will not fold my arms and watch criminals destroy my state, if those few criminals are Igbos then they should know that I will not allow them.”
Wike, however, said security agencies during their search of some residents in Oyigbo, saw shrines with IPOB flags and a picture of the group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Usually busy streets of Oyigbo remain scanty weeks after a deadly assault by soldiers killed many in the town. Credit: Ubuntu Times
The army also denied targeting a particular group. It also denied killing residents, even when the evidence shows the contrary. The spokesperson for Six Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Major Charles Ekeocha, said the army only entered houses that were possible hideouts of “hoodlums”.
“We lost six soldiers in that area, their weapons were carted away, it was planned and executed,” he was quoted by Guardian as saying. “The exercise going on there now is searching and identifying houses used by the so-called IPOB members. We are searching those houses to see whether we can get all those rifles they took away from our soldiers, that is what we are doing, we are professional about it. I don’t know about firing of weapons.”
Usually busy streets of Oyigbo remain scanty weeks after a deadly assault by soldiers killed many in the town. Credit: Ubuntu Times
On November 18, the king of Oyigbo, Mike Nwaji, urged the governor and the military authorities to caution soldiers against the indiscriminate arrests of residents in the area, according to the Lagos-based newspaper, Punch.
“Even if the person is a member of IPOB, I overheard the governor said that the activities of IPOB in Rivers State has been proscribed. I didn’t hear the governor say search them from house to house, but the governor said their activities, meetings, gatherings.
“So, any person going round and telling soldiers to come and see IPOB (should stop); the main people who committed the offense had all run away.”
Kampala, November 20 — Dozens of people have been killed in raucous street clashes pitting supporters of presidential candidate Bobi wine and security forces, the country’s worst election-related violence since President Yoweri Museveni came to power, nearly four decades ago.
Police using tear gas and live ammunition killed some 37 people and injured more than 100 others as they battled to control supporters of Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi a day after he was arrested ostensibly for flouting Coronavirus preventive guidelines.
Several streets and city suburbs descended into a flurry of tear gas, live bullets, and mass arrests as police battled supporters of Mr. Kyagulanyi. Police and troops in riot gear used pepper spray and water cannons as they cleared streets and hallways of protesters, arresting anyone wearing red clothing, Mr.Kyagulanyi’s party color, which authorities have banned, saying red clothing is a preserve of the military. Some 600 people were arrested.
Deadly protests broke out in Kampala after Ugandan Musician turned politician was arrested at a campaign rally. Credit: Chimprereports
“All indicators reveal that these events were not just impromptu,” said Fred Enanga the police spokesman, “they were part of a loosely coordinated campaign by the political group to cause anarchy.”
The musician turned politician was arrested at a campaign rally that had drawn a large crowd in the east of the country.
Mr.Kyagulanyis’s wife, Barbie Kyagulanyi, said that the police had denied the family and his lawyers access to him, further angering the supporters.
The 37-year-old together with 11 others will be competing in the 2021 presidential elections against President Yoweri Museveni who has ruled the country for 34 years. He has endeared himself to Uganda’s youth, who make up more than half of the population for his bold criticism of Mr. Museveni. Uganda’s general election will be held on 14 January next year.
A government spokesman, Ofwono Opondo, said that the police was doing its job and had responded appropriately to the protesters. He blamed the protesters for being rowdy and violent instead of resolving their concerns using legal means.
Shops, restaurants, and several other businesses have been closed for the past two days around the capital and major townships around the country.
Dr. Rosemary Byanyima, the Deputy Executive Director National Referral hospital says that the hospital has so far received 16 bodies and 46 people have been admitted at the casualty ward nursing injuries sustained in the protests. According to Byanyima, four people died last night as a result of injuries.
Kyagulanyi has been arrested several times before and tortured in custody the latest being last month just after he had been nominated to run for presidency as the official flag bearer of the National Unity Platform party.
“This is the price of having a president who cannot read that he has overstayed his welcome, the riots are just a tip of the iceberg,” said Joseph Mukasa a charity worker in Kampala.
Dar es Salaam — A Tanzanian court on Tuesday, November 17 sentenced a well-known media entrepreneur to one year suspended sentence after he was found guilty of obstructing police investigations.
Maxence Melo, the co-founder of JamiiForums—a popular whistle-blower website in Tanzania, and the winner of New York Based 2019 CPJ International Press Freedom Award, was charged for obstructing justice by refusing to reveal the identities of anonymous users disclosing suspected Tanzanian corrupt public officials.
Controversial Cybercrime Law
The defendant was charged under a controversial 2015 Cybercrimes Act, which human rights campaigners say was enacted to promote the government’s desire to silence critical voices in one of east Africa’s popular online chat rooms.
President John Magufuli, who has won the second and final term in office, promising to intensify the war against corruption and wasteful spending has come under strong criticism for undermining democracy stifling basic rights to opinion and expression.
One Year Suspended Sentence
Presenting the verdict, Huruma Shaidi a Resident Magistrate at Kisutu court, said the accused is convicted on similar charges of the cases which had been filed earlier. He acquitted him on conditions that the defendant would refrain from committing a similar offense within a year. The Magistrate also set free Melo’s co-accused Mike Mushi after the prosecutors failed to prove the charges against him.
The protracted case against Jamii forums’ founders is part of a series of police allegations that have been dragging since 2016.
In a similar case, Melo was sentenced to pay a fine of Tanzanian shillings 3 million (US$1,300) or to serve a jail sentence for one year. He paid the fine.
No Action Plan
Reacting to the verdict, Mello told reporters that he’s dissatisfied but respects the court’s decision.
“It is too early to know the next move, my lawyers will decide on our action plan for appeal,” he told reporters.
During the case, the prosecutors accused him of ‘intentionally and unlawfully’ concealing the identities of anonymous people who posted false information on the website.
The duo were charged for obstructing investigation contrary to Section 22(2) of the Cybercrimes law. The specific charges was refusing to cooperate with investigators who needed information about an anonymous JF Expert Member calling him/herself Fuhrer, who had alleged on the platform that Oil Com company was embroiled in tax evasion scam by illegally leasing and draining oil at the Dar es Salaam port. The company denied the allegations.
Vague Charges
In dramatic turn of events, the police were interested in knowing users’ information including IP and email addresses. With time the state changed the case and instituted new charges accusing the defendants of corrupting and distorting data in blatant violation of the law.
The accused also faced cybercrimes charges in two other related cases, including one accusing them of operating an unregistered website.
However, critics have criticized the government for failing in its mandate to investigate corruption allegations; instead, targeting whistle-blowers who assisted in exposing corruption.
Under the Cybercrimes law, anybody who publishes “false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate” information on a website commits an offense and upon conviction can be jailed for three years or made to pay a fine of at least Tanzanian shilling 5 million or both.
A Trained Engineer
Melo, who is a trained civil engineer co-founded JamiiForums—a website that exposes corruption and help push for political accountability almost two decades ago.
Although the website has won global acclaim, it had put him at loggerheads with Tanzania authorities.
In 2008, Melo was arrested on accusation of terrorism. Although the charges were dropped it was not the end. Seven years later the east African country passed the controversial Cybercrime Act of 2015, which, critics say, authorities have been using to censor and limit criticism.
In a bid to comply with harsh online regulations, JamiiForums was shut down for 21 days. The whistle-blower website has since hired a legion of lawyers to review its editorial policy, strategies, and modus operandi so that it complies with government regulations.
October 22 — Nigerians hoping for some contrition from their government were left fuming as President Muhammadu Buhari delivered an address to the nation that did not acknowledge the shooting of unarmed protesters in some of its cities.
While he said he was “deeply pained that innocent lives have been lost” in the Thursday evening address, there was no mention of what has been tagged Black Tuesday; a day defined by the killing of peaceful demonstrators at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos by security forces.
Human Rights group Amnesty International said the security forces killed at least 12 people in Lagos on Tuesday.
Some local media reported that close to 50 protestors were killed nationwide on Tuesday.
In what could be considered a slap in the face of victims of Black Tuesday, President Buhari made time to mourn “officers of the Nigeria Police Force who have tragically lost their lives in the line of duty.”
Despite the evidence and reports, President Buhari instead pointed fingers at persons he said had “hijacked and misdirected” the protest movement against police brutality.
His address was also littered with insinuations that the protests were being overcome by bad actors and that they were not operating “within the law.”
“So-called protesters have invaded an International Airport and in the process disrupted the travel plans of fellow Nigerians and our visitors,” he noted as an example.
“Certainly, there is no way whatsoever to connect these bad acts to legitimate expression of grievance of the youth of our country.”
President Buhari further demonstrated some concern for Nigeria’s reputation abroad warning of “deliberate falsehood and misinformation through the social media” purportedly meant to mislead international observers.
“To our neighbors in particular, and members of the international community, many of whom have expressed concern about the ongoing development in Nigeria, we thank you and urge you all to seek to know all the facts available before taking a position or rushing to judgment and making hasty pronouncements,” he urged.
President Buhari’s address then pivoted onto a more political lane where he touched on some policies and interventions his government had put in place including a “broad plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.”
He thus urged angry citizens to “discontinue the street protests and constructively engage government in finding solutions.”
“I would like to appeal to protesters to note and take advantage of the various well-thought-out initiatives of this administration designed to make their lives better and more meaningful, and resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos with the aim of truncating our nascent democracy.”
The speech was met with scorn from some Nigerians on Twitter, where the #EndSars hashtag has been the rallying cry for protestors.
For some, it was a reminder that Nigerians continue their resolve for change.
if they can’t stop us Physically, they will stop you emotionally.
With the horrorful videos and pictures coming out from Nigeria and the Speech of Buhari.
It’s enough to weaken our spirit.
Please don’t give up
I thought we all agreed to be Protesting from home? Abeg 🙏 #EndSARS
Reports on gunfire in urban areas and jailbreaks followed the Tuesday evening shooting of protesters in Lagos.
Lagos and other parts of Nigeria saw buildings set on fire and shops looted since the shooting.
This is despite the Lagos state government imposing an indefinite round-the-clock curfew on its about-15 million inhabitants.
The protests began about two weeks ago with angry youth demanding the disbandment of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
SARS was eventually dissolved on 11 October but that shifted the protestor’s attention to widespread reforms in the security apparatus. Others have called for President Buhari to resign.
Black Tuesday prompted global calls for the Nigerian government to end the violence and investigate Tuesday’s events.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said reports that lights were turned off and CCTV cameras removed at the Lekki Toll Plaza before the shootings suggested it was “premeditated, planned and coordinated”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to police brutality in Nigeria following two weeks of citizen protests.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, he condemned “the violent escalation on 20 October in Lagos which resulted in multiple deaths and caused many injuries.”
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief also condemned the killing of protesters demonstrating against police brutality.
“It is alarming to learn that several people have been killed and injured during the ongoing protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Nigeria,” he said.
Statements from major regional bodies have however lacked bite and have been criticized as dishonest because of their framing of the protests as being violent.
While ECOWAS urged security agencies in Nigeria to act professionally, it also called on “all protestors to remain peaceful in the conduct of their demonstrations.”
In a statement on Thursday, the AU chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, “strongly” condemned the violence, appealing “to all political and social actors to reject the use of violence and respect human rights and the rule of law.”
Nigerian security forces opened fire late Tuesday on hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered in the country’s commercial center of Lagos, killing an unspecified number of people and leaving many injured.
Witnesses said soldiers fired live rounds under the cover of darkness at the Lekki toll gate, an upscale area of the city, just hours after the Lagos authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew to try to douse tension following two weeks of demonstrations demanding extensive police reforms.
A popular disc jockey, DJ Switch, who live-streamed the attack on Instagram, said seven people died. Some reports said more people died in the attack that has trended on social media as #LekkiMassacre and #LekkiGenocide.
“For 12 days, our young kept peacefully and intelligently asking @MBuhari
to #EndSARS. The best response he could give was ask the @HQNigerianArmy
to kill as many of them as possible in #LekkiGenocide,” former education minister and World Bank executive, Oby Ezekwesili, wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos promised an investigation and blamed the attack on “forces beyond my direct control”, an indication the directive for the raid came from the federal government, which controls the police and the military.
“For clarity, it is imperative to explain that no sitting governor controls the rules of engagement of the military. I have, nonetheless, ordered an investigation into the rules of engagement adopted by men of the Nigerian Army that were deployed to the Lekki toll gate last night,” the governor said.
“This is with a view to take this up with higher commands of the Nigerian Army and to seek the intervention of Mr. President in his capacity as the Commander-In-Chief to unravel the sequence of events that happened yesterday (Tuesday) night.”
Videos and pictures posted online show horrified protesters fleeing as soldiers fired live bullets towards the crowds. One footage showed victims trying to remove shrapnel from injured protesters.
The attack followed weeks of rare mass protests in a country that has endured two decades of democratic governance following decades of military dictatorship.
President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 and won re-election in 2019 on the promise to fight insecurity and corruption, but many citizens say the president has become aloof to the demands of citizens who voted for him. Mr. Buhari is yet to address the nation since the protests began.
The demonstrations started with demands for the disbandment of a notorious police unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, accused of rampant abuse of human rights, extortion, and unlawful killings. The government acceded after days of protests and named a new tactical unit, SWAT, modeled after the United States’ special weapons and tactics squad.
The mostly young protesters, however, have insisted on wider reforms, and more tangible actions such as the prosecution of police operatives who violated the rights of citizens and have demanded the payment of compensation to victims. They argue that previous promises by governments to reform the police were never actualized.
The demonstrations have taken place in several cities across the country, but have taken hold in Lagos and the capital, Abuja, and at least 12 people were killed either by the police or pro-government thugs before the Tuesday attack, local media reported.
The Nigerian army had last week warned it was ready to step in against “subversive elements and troublemakers”, and vowed to defend the country’s democracy “at all cost”. On Saturday, the army announced the launch of “operation crocodile smile” nationwide, saying it was targeting criminals. But the move raised concerns the government was planning to clamp down on the protests.
After curfew was announced in Lagos and several other cities across the country on Tuesday, protesters reported seeing unknown people removing CCTV cameras from the Lekki area where protesters had camped for the last two weeks. They said as night fell, street light in the area was cut before soldiers arrived and started shooting.
EndSARS protesters reported seeing unknown agents removing CCTV cameras from the Lekki tollgate vicinity before soldiers arrived and started shooting at demonstrators. Credit: EndSARS Protester(s)
The killings on Tuesday have horrified the country and drawn international condemnations.
Joe Biden, the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, urged “President Buhari and the Nigerian military to cease the violent crackdown on protesters in Nigeria, which has already resulted in several deaths.”
Biden said the U.S. must stand with Nigerians “who are peacefully demonstrating for police reform and seeking an end to corruption in their democracy.”
Former U.S. secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, called on Mr. Buhari and the army to stop attacking protesters.
The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, reiterated the UN’s call for maximum restraint in security forces’ response to the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria.
“The UN and I are following the protests in Nigeria calling for an end to human rights violations.
“I join the UN Secretary-General in stressing the importance of respect for peaceful protests and freedom of assembly, and call on the security forces to exercise maximum restraint,” she said on Twitter on Tuesday night.
The military has not commented on the incident, beyond tagging news posts on Twitter of the attacks as “fake news”.
Chaos escalated across Lagos on Wednesday with several properties belonging to the government or prominent individuals looted or torched. The palace of the traditional ruler, the Oba of Lagos, seen as a pro-government figure, was vandalized. A facility of the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Federal Road Safety Corps were also set on fire.
In response, the government deployed police and the military to patrol the streets, largely deserted by residents. Flights into and out of Lagos have been canceled.
Dar es Salaam, October 8 — Tanzania’s ruling party—Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the government have come under strong criticism for allegedly attacking citizens’ rights and processes necessary to ensure a free and fair election.
“Citizens must not sit idly while their rights, hopes, and dreams are eviscerated by a political party determined to stay in power at any cost,” warned the White Paper in its preamble.
Unlawful Disqualifications
The paper also accused the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of unlawfully disqualifying hundreds of opposition political candidates.
The new document was published days after Tanzania electoral body suspended the campaigns of the leading opposition presidential candidate, Tundu Lissu for seven days ostensibly for inciting violence in one of his campaign meetings, in what critics say an attempt to thwart his growing political influence.
“This orchestrated rough justice is yet another proof of a discredited NEC and compromised electoral system,” said Lissu.
Lissu has been subjected to police intimidation. For example, his convoy was blocked two days ago by heavily armed police officers for nine hours—preventing him from attending an internal party meeting in the coast region.
“After nine hours standoff with the police on the Morogoro highway, the police have blinked first. They’ve lifted the illegal blockade our right to meet freely with our members has been vindicated,” Lissu tweeted.
The 52-year-old human rights lawyer, who is running on the ticket of Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) is a fierce critic of the incumbent President John Magufuli—who’s seeking re-election for his second and final term in office.
Lissu, who returned on July 20th after three years in exile in Belgium, survived a brazen assassination attempt in which unknown assailants shot him 16 times.
Police Violence
According to the White Paper, members of the opposition have also been charged for sedition, incitement to violence, or for holding rally the police deem illegal.
As the general election is drawing near, the document states, fears are mounting for Tanzania’s main opposition party about the status of its poll agents and their ability to monitor polling stations as required by law.
The White Paper urged President Magufuli and the country’s electoral body to respect the will of the people by ensuring that CHADEMA’s polling agents are permitted to observe polling stations as required by the law.
It warns NEC to immediately approve opposition parliamentary and councillorship candidates who were disqualified on baseless grounds and have since been waiting for a dragging appeal process.
Fabricated Lies
The document, which CCM’s party ideology publicity Secretary, Humphrey Polepole, dismissed as fabricated lies, suggests the October polls stand little chance of being free and fair.
The document calls on the international community to demand proper monitoring of the polls and to consider tougher measures against individuals it accuses of violating human rights and basic freedoms.
As the country is verging to the polls, opposition leaders say the government is using every trick to sabotage the opposition.
Misleading Impression
Zitto Kabwe the leader of ACT-Wazalendo party said the presidential candidates from little-known parties are stooges put by CCM to create the misleading impression that democracy is growing.
“Suspending the leading opposition candidate’s presidential campaign on bogus charges raises serious questions about the independence of Tanzania’s electoral commission,” he said in a statement.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — The convoys of Tanzania’s opposition presidential candidate and his running mate were on different occasion subjected to a hail of teargas canisters and live ammunition this week as police attempted to disperse huge crowds of people who wanted to listen to the man who survived a brazen assassination attempt in 2017 in which he was shot 16 times.
The first incident happened at Nyamongo—a mining village in northern Mara region when Tundu Lissu, the opposition presidential candidate on the ticket of Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) was about to make a brief stop-over to greet his supporters when the police started firing indiscriminately in the air after a verbal confrontation with CHADEMA security detail.
“Our convoy has been subjected to a massive teargas attack by the Police… in an attempt to block our route heading to our campaign meeting,” said Lissu adding that “Our supporters have equally been bitterly caned and hurt. Let them bomb us and shoot us, but we shall never back down.”
Unbowed and Defiant
Surprisingly as teargas smoke belched, Lissu’s supporters remained unprovoked, chanting his campaign slogans while pushing the police vehicles out of the way so that they could hear their hero roaring.
Media sources said the confrontation started shortly after Lissu and his team inadvertently took a wrong route to a scheduled campaign rally contrary to what they had previously agreed with the local police, forcing police officers who were escorting the convoy to withdraw their escort.
Police Beatings
Video footages show scores of CHADEMA’s supporters including motorcycle riders had been injured after they were brutally caned by the riot police officers.
“I was just passing by when the police van blocked the road and the officers started to attack me heavily with batons,” said Mwita Chacha who sustained injuries and had his motorcycle destroyed.
“Why should police threaten a presidential candidate with bullets and tear gas,” Queried Ansbert Ngurumo an independent journalist and fierce critic of the Tanzanian regime.
Despite the confrontation, the presidential candidate was able to make his speech before heading to the northern Serengeti area where he spent a night.
Speaking in Serengeti, Lissu strongly condemned the police attempt to disrupt his rallies.
Running Mate in Trouble
Meanwhile the convoy of his running mate, Salum Mwalimu was teargassed by the police in the eastern Ifakara village, ostensibly to disperse throngs of supporters as he tried to greet residents who had gathered for a rally expected to be addressed by the opposition’s councillorship candidate.
Tanzania will hold its highly anticipated election on October 28. President John Magufuli, who seeks re-election on the ticket of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) is facing strong opposition from Lissu of CHADEMA.
Independent Commission
Members of the opposition in the east African country have relentlessly been calling for the formation of an independent electoral commission— expressing fears the elections would probably take place in a climate of violence and intimidation.
Under the current setting, critics say the National Electoral Commission (NEC) is not independent since its commissioners are all appointed by the president.
For instance, in total disregard of the rule of law and principles of impartiality, NEC’s Director of Elections, Wilson Mahera has reportedly warned supporters of the opposition that they will see more police violence, bombing, and teargassing.
His remarks have infuriated the opposition.
“Threatening people with teargas for expressing their political opinions is no one’s idea of impartiality or rule of law. I simply confirm that we are watching and recording your intimidation or your own people on behalf of CCM,” said Robert Amsterdam a renowned international lawyer who represents Lissu.
Despite facing crippling huddles over the last five years, Tanzania opposition is proving resilient and still able to galvanize massive public support in what Lissu explains as strong grassroots support that was energized when political activities were banned.
While the opposition presidential candidate and his supporters are subjected to police brutality and intimidate, critics say their counterpart from CCM is campaigning freely and makes stop-overs to greet the people anywhere as he pleases.
“Nobody can stop us,” said Lissu amid thunderous applause from his supporters.
Dar es Salaam, September 24 — A top Tanzanian lawyer and the former president of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS)—a local bar association has been disbarred from practicing law in the East African country barely a day after she was kicked out by her law firm, in what critics term as politically motivated scheme to silence her.
“I have been permanently removed from the Roll of Advocates,” she announced on Twitter
The decision to ban her from practicing law was reached by the Advocates Commitee which sat at the country’s High Court Wednesday and found her to have breached the codes of ethics.
The 51-year-old lawyer, who was earlier this week sacked by IMMMA Advocates—a law firm she had helped to create, said her practicing number 848 had been plucked from the ledger of advocates.
“I will not be appealing the decision,” she said.
Corporate Reputation
The law firm, where Karume worked for more than a decade as a senior partner, sacked her on the grounds that she was tarnishing its corporate image and jeopardizing friendly business relations with clients.
The firm claimed it’s unhappy with Karume’s “political activism” on social media which, allegedly violates the legal code of ethics.
Sadock Magai, a managing partner at IMMMA Advocates told reporters that Karume’s political activism has injured the firm’s corporate reputation adding that she had grossly breached her partnership agreement with the firm known for its premier legal services across Africa.
Karume denied the allegations saying defending the rule of law and democracy has nothing to do with breach of ethics.
“If you defend the rule of law, democracy in a dictatorship you’re dubbed a “political activist” and terminated in breach of a deed of partnership by IMMMA a law firm that had no qualms flaunting a partner sitting as a minister in the ruling CCM government,” she said adding “Ethics are a rare commodity.”
Parting Ways
In a letter written to Karume, signed by Magai the law firm said it no longer wished to associate itself with her, adding that she will be duly compensated.
The outspoken lawyers had also been ordered to return the firm’s possessions.
“Two weeks ago, they (the firm) sent me a letter asking me to stop political activism or they will fire me. I told them I am a lawyer and it is my job to speak for the community,” said Karume defiantly.
Fearless Human Rights Defender
In a statement issued today, Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC)—a leading rights advocacy group said it’s “extremely shocked and deeply saddened” by the decision to ban Karume.
“She’s an ardent supporter of the rule of law and staunch defender of constitutionalism, democracy, and human rights in Tanzania.”
Advocate Karume, a granddaughter of the founding Zanzibar president, Abeid Amani Karume, is described by her supporters as an astute lawyer, with a razor-sharp legal mind and a bold temperament.
“Like a person of any other calling Fatma is always guided by her conscience and stick to the cardinal rules for lawyers,” reads THRDC statement in part.
Impeccable Legal Credentials
Karume has over the years, tirelessly worked to resolve many corporate, human rights, and public interest legal disputes.
Last year, Karume was indefinitely suspended by the High Court as an advocate on alleged ethical misconduct. However, campaigners still recognize her as a fearless human rights advocate.
Karume, whose office was in August 2017 fire-bombed by unknown assailants is the second female President of the Tanganyika Law Society.
She has more than twenty years of experience in civil and commercial litigation and specializes in civil litigation, arbitration, constitutional and administrative law.
Dar es Salaam — Tanzania authorities have tightened restrictions on the media, political opposition, and organizations working to promote human rights—ushering in a climate of fear ahead of the October 28 general elections.
International advocacy group, the Human Rights Watch has released a chorus of criticism, accusing Tanzania government of repeatedly intimidating opposition politicians, and banning newspapers deemed critical, denying human rights groups the right to provide civic education and elections monitoring while blackmailing independent journalists from reporting the COVID-19 crisis.
Repressive Laws
Since coming to power in 2015, the government under President John Magufuli, has enacted and enforced tougher laws that campaigners say stifle civil liberties and basic rights to expression and association.
Such laws including the Cyber-crime Act of 2015 which severely restrict online communications, and effectively criminalizing social media content critical of the government.
The government has also toughened the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, ostensibly to punish online users who publish content likely to violate public order, or those organizing demonstrations, or promoting hatred or racism.
Oryem Nyeko, African researcher at Human Rights Watch said Tanzania’s government move to repress civil liberties, raise doubts about the elections being free and fair.
“All of the actions that the government has taken, affect conditions for a fair electoral playing field,” Nyeko said.
For the elections to be free and fair, he added, Tanzania’s authorities should allow political opposition to express their views and rights group and the media to work freely.
The government has also adopted tougher regulations officially banning local TV and Radio stations from airing foreign-produced contents without approval.
Independent Voice Blackmail
Early in July, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA)—the state-run communications watchdog banned Kwanza TV, an online television station for allegedly airing a biased report on COVID-19.
Campaigners accuse the government of intimidating independent journalists, forcing them to refrain from covering the opposition’s campaign rallies notably the main opposition party Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), whose Presidential candidate, Tundu Lissu miraculously survived a politically-motivated assassination attempt in which he was shot 16 times in 2017.
“Citizens must not sit idly while their hopes, dreams, and rights are eviscerated by a political party determined to stay in power at any cost,” tweeted Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer representing Lissu.
Electoral Observation
Meanwhile, the Tanzania’s National Electoral Commission (NEC), has banned key advocacy groups including the Tanzania Human Rights Defender Coalition (THRDC) from providing voters’ education ahead of the election.
Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, THRDC, National Coordinator believes the move is irrational and out of fear, given their solid track record to carry out their duties professionally and objectively.
“More active NGOs have been excluded because of this fear” Ole Ngurumwa told Ubuntu Times.
Ole Ngurumwa, who was briefly arrested last month for failure to submit THRDC agreements with its donors, said the organization has suspended its operations after authorities froze its bank accounts, pending investigation on alleged money laundering.
Ganyurey, Kenya August 10 — It is 4 PM in the evening, and Halima Hassan, a pupil in Ganyurey Primary School, has just returned from a COVID-19 pandemic awareness session ready to help her mother in milking camels.
As a 12-year old and in class seven, Halima is among hundreds of girls in Ganyurey village in Wajir County striving to escape from the curse of forced early marriages that are turning out to be one of the outdated cultural practices still rampant in the region.
Halima was nearly being forced into early marriage to a 69 years old man but she resisted and insisted on pursuing her education to the disbelief of her parents.
And she has now joined forces with gender and good cultural practices advocates to tame the perpetrators of this entrenched, heinous, backward, and exploitative culture.
According to statistics from the Wajir County Social Services office, between 2005 to 2014 an estimated 2,000 forced and early child marriages cases were reported in the County.
And the youngest girls to be forcefully married were eight years old and were married to old men aged between 60 to 94 years old.
These alarming statistics also show that the sexual pests escaped justice by just paying a number of goats or cattle to the parents of the affected girls.
Data availed by Wajir County Social Services office shows that between 2005 to 2014 an estimated 3,000 goats and 5,000 cattle were paid as dowry to parents of the underage girls forced into early marriage.
Miss Halima Hassan stands near school book store at Ganyurey Primary School. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
These horrendous statistics have elicited outrage among Wajir County residents resulting in Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) like Frontier Indigenous Network to come up with initiatives to curb and eradicate cases of the girl child forced early marriages.
According, Mrs. Naima Abdi, a program officer with, Frontier Indigenous Network, a women rights advocacy organization, one way they have come up with to deal with the problem of child marriages is to establish literacy centers dubbed “safe spaces” to help sensitize the communities in Wajir County on why they should disregard forced early marriages and foster the education of the girl child.
“The safe spaces idea was meant to address the rampant problem of child marriage and female genital cutting menace, but it has also evolved into tackling other societal issues like creating awareness on COVID-19 pandemic, fake news peddled by conservative elders and individuals supporting religious fundamentalism,’’ Mrs. Abdi says.
The initiative known as girls’ and boys’ spaces offers school-going children a platform to engage and share ideas on issues affecting them at their villages and schools and provide mentors to moderate their discussions.
So far, the initiative has assisted the school going children to engage on various issues like girl child education, fighting outdated cultural practices like female genital mutilation, early forced marriages and climate change, and environmental conservation awareness among other issues.
According to United Children Fund (UNICEF), Kenya has the 20th highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 527,000 and 23 percent of Kenyan girls are married before their 18th birthday and 4 percent are married before the age of 15.
Every day, Halima treks for some two kilometers from her village to attend awareness sessions at the nearby “safe space” center amid hostile weather and temperatures that at times reach 36 degrees Celsius.
Today, Halima is one of the mentors to her colleagues at their village “safe space” center where she narrates the horrendous experiences she went through in resisting being married to a 69-year old man.
Students playing outside Ganyurey Primary School, Wajir Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
And even with all the health protocols introduced by the Ministry of Health and County Governments to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the girls attending “safe space” centers have maintained social-distancing and other preventive measures.
Initially, the “safe spaces” were hubs for school going girls and boys to discuss critical issues and suggest solution and action plans at school level while engaging teachers and the school administration, but since the Coronavirus outbreak they have evolved into also educating local communities about the dangers posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amongst the key challenges tackled by the initiative, is fighting adverse fake news on the pandemic like allegations that the disease is a biological weapon targeting Muslims.
In one of the mentoring sessions, Halima tells her colleagues how one day she arrived back home from school and found a group of elders had gathered at her father’s home to offer a marriage proposal for her and discuss dowry with the family.
Halima a fourth born in a family of six and the only daughter, said she was gripped by fear on being told what was happening, but she gathered courage to tell-off her parents and the gathered crowd.
“I was carrying a load of firewood when I saw a group of women outside our family home dancing and ululating and their dressing code was that of a dowry negotiation ceremony. I was shocked, terrified, and felt pain all over my body. But I gathered confidence and told myself that I was going to resist,’’ she said.
Halima who was eventually rescued from the forced early child marriage scheme by her parents told her colleagues at Ganyurey Primary School Wajir County, during one of the mentoring sessions.
Ganyurey Primary school students and teachers standing outside the safe space zone after conducting a session. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
At the time, Halima was barely 12 years old and her parents were negotiating for a dowry to marry her to a 69-year old man.
She said her mother also objected to the plan forcing her father to engage her in secret consultation before her mother ordered the elders to leave her homestead.
Her father was salivating for 10 head of cattle her suitor was offering after her father lost his entire herd due to prolonged drought.
This development indicates that climate change is also playing a pivotal role in the rampant cases of forced early marriages in semi-arid and arid regions in Kenya.
According to the Executive Director with Wagalla Centre for Peace and Human Rights, Mr. Adan Garad, climate change, and now COVID-19 pandemic are playing a role in increased cases of forced early marriages in Wajir County.
“Increased cases of forced early marriages in Wajir County can partly be blamed on a combination of climatic shocks and effects of COVID-19,” Mr Garad said.
As part of her community initiatives, Halima who is now a “safe spaces” mentor together with officials of Frontier Indigenous Network decided to pass the controversial topic of forced early marriages to school heads and boards that have resulted in well-structured awareness campaigns.
Currently, there is prompt action from schools whenever their pupils or students report incidents of attempted forced early marriages.
Women returning to their homes after attending a safe space session in Ganyurey Primary School. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
The school’s management then summons affected girl’s parents and inform them it was against Kenyan law to wed under age school going girls and are enlightened on the importance of educating girls.
According to Mrs. Muslima Mohamed, a teacher in one of the local schools in Wajir County, the “safe spaces” initiative has greatly improved enrollment of girls in both primary and secondary schools.
“We are very grateful to the “safe spaces” initiative because we are seeing the results and we are asking both the county government and the national government to support such initiatives,” Mrs. Mohamed said.
The impact of the “safe spaces” initiative has made the Frontier Indigenous Network establish 25 school and community safe spaces supporting more than 1,000 students and youth and reaching out to 4,000 Wajir West villagers.
“The impact made us increase the spaces to 25 and the initiative has so far stopped 398 planned forced early child marriages from 2015 to 2020 and further disrupted 400 such marriage organized under COVID-19 period,’’ Mrs. Amran Abdundi, Executive Director of Frontier Indigenous Network says.
The “safe spaces” initiative is going to be remembered as a community-based project that tackled a key problem in addressing the education of the girl child in Wajir County.
He was 34 and leaves behind a six-year-old daughter and a fiancée, according to his brother, Paddy Dzamara.
He (Dzamara) was scheduled to be operated by doctors following a successful fundraising by well-wishers who had up to the time of his death raised half of the required 28,000 USD.
Dzamara on numerous occasions had a brush with law enforcement agents here and was at one time abducted and severely beaten for his anti-government activism since the times of former late President Robert Mugabe.
But, taking to Twitter, other Zimbabweans like Edith Prisca have taken Dzamara’s cause of death with a pinch of salt.
“Is it me or there is a pattern to this madness? Detention by Zanu PF government, then colon cancer,” said Prisca.
Nigel Chanakira, a Zimbabwean business mogul and founder of the now-defunct Kingdom Bank, said ‘it is with profound sadness to advise you that Dr. Patson Dzamara has passed on this morning ahead of his scheduled cancer operation. Thanks to all those that had been contributing to the Fund where US$14k had already been raised. I am personally devasted.’
Dzamara’s brother, Paddy Dzamara, said ‘we are shocked and devastated as a family. We thank God for his life; we thank everyone who are standing with us and supporting us during this sad moment.’
Taking to Twitter, Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa said “I’m devastated. Just received bad news from the Dzamaras. The young Dr. Patson Dzamara gone too soon. This has been a terrible 2020!”
Itai, brother to the now late Dzamara went missing in March 2015 after suspected state security agents abducted him as he was having a haircut in the vicinity of his Harare home.
Since then, his whereabouts have remained a mystery.
Harare — Closer to a month after government foiled street protests, 24-year old Benson Chomuruva, a resident of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, still winces because of injuries sustained from beatings by the country’s detectives who accused him of staging an unsanctioned demonstration.
But, when he was picked by cops, Chomuruva claimed he was only seated outside the gate of his house basking in the sunshine with his friends.
On the day of the protests, still in Harare, police also arrested Tsitsi Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean novelist who had decided to join the anti-government march.
She (Tsitsi) was charged with inciting public violence.
Yet, Zimbabwe’s Section 59 of the constitution allows peaceful demonstrations, which many like Benson only dream of enjoying.
“I’m not an activist, but still I can’t even risk watching demonstrations as they happen because police would beat me up even when I am within the vicinity of my home. I was arrested and beaten before; I don’t want that experience again,” Benson told Ubuntu Times.
As such, in Zimbabwe, fear of the government is growing every day.
For many like Jacob Ngarivhume, Zimbabwe’s opposition Transform Zimbabwe, now behind bars for inciting public violence after he made calls via social media for people to protest against the government, the right to freedom of speech seems long gone.
Yet, Ngarivhume had made frantic calls on Twitter for people to join the Jul.31 anti-government protests.
Civil society activists here have weighed in, blaming the Zimbabwean government of fueling human rights abuses.
“We are witnesses to the serious human rights abuses that the Zimbabwean government is perpetrating against its own people and now there is nothing like rights to talk about under Mr. Mnangagwa’s government,” Owen Dhliwayo, a civil society activist here, told Ubuntu Times.
A soldier armed with a gun is seen chasing a woman in the capital, Harare, amid the outbreak of anti-government protests in Zimbabwe, with other soldiers doing the same on other civilians. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Moved by the rights abuses here, in a rather frank letter to the Zimbabwean government, Catholic Bishops said ‘the country was suffering from a multi-layered crisis, including economic collapse, deepening poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses.’
“Fear runs down the spine of many of our people today. The crackdown on dissent is unprecedented. Is this the Zimbabwe we want? To have a different opinion does not mean to be an enemy,” read part of the Catholic letter addressed to the Zimbabwean government.
But, the Zimbabwean government has vehemently refuted claims of the existence of human rights abuses in the country, choosing rather to spew attack on the Catholic prelates.
Reacting to the Catholic Bishops’ letter, Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, said ‘its evil message reeks with all the vices that have perennially hobbled the progress of Africa.’
“It trumpets petty tribal feuds and narrow regionalist agendas so that it can sow seeds of internecine strife as a prelude to national disintegration,” charged the Zimbabwean Minister.
Ironically, to this, government earned a drubbing from one of its own commissions- the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), which rebuked the regime about its violation of human rights.
“ZHRC calls upon the government of Zimbabwe to respect, protect, promote and fulfill all the rights enshrined in the Declaration of Rights as provided for by section 44 of the Constitution,” said the Southern African nation’s statutory body in a statement.
ZHRC is one of this country’s five independent commissions provided for under section 232 of the Constitution to support and entrench human rights and democracy in particular.
Nevertheless, even before conviction, journalist Hopewell Chin’ono who has reported intensively on corruption and human rights violations in Zimbabwe, and politician Ngarivhume, languish at Chikurubhi maximum jail as the State continues to deny them bail.
On the streets across towns and cities here, armed soldiers have become common features working alongside police, ready to thwart any anti-government protests.
To many like Benson, ‘the site of armed soldiers is chilling even as government claims to be maintaining order.’
Like ZHRC, human rights defenders like Claris Madhuku who heads the Platform for Youth Development has not minced his words in implicating the government in the country’s worsening human rights record.
Soldiers in Zimbabwe of late have been on the offensive, armed with guns violating human rights in the Southern African nation as they attack anti-government protesters. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
“Former President Robert Mugabe did worse things in terms of violating human rights, but the current regime has done the worst because now it heavily relies on the military to quell anti-government protests much as it relied on the same when it came to power,” Madhuku told Ubuntu Times.
For many jailed journalists like Chin’ono, even his right to legal representation has been snatched away from him by the Zimbabwean government, this after his lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was barred from representing him.
This, prominent Zimbabwean law lecturer Alex Magaisa at Kent Law School at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, has branded ‘lawfare’ being used by the Zimbabwean government to silence opposition.
“It is lawfare in which law is a weapon used by the Mnangagwa regime to suppress citizens. Dictatorships rely on a combination of guns and the law. They engage in warfare against citizens and bludgeon dissenters into submission,” Magaisa said recently in his weekly column called Big Saturday Read found on his blog.
But, to this also, ZHRC said it ‘calls upon the government to safeguard and advance human rights as dictated by international human rights’ law and the obligations imposed by treaties and conventions Zimbabwe is party to.’
Meanwhile, ordinary Zimbabweans like 76-year old Tinago Marweyi, a resident of Highfield high-density suburb in Harare has had no kind words for government here which he has accused of turning on its own citizens.
“My son, we now live in fear of our own government more than thieves and robbers because if we raise our voices complaining about anything that we think government is messing up, we are treated as traitors. Colonial governments here were better than what we see under Mnangagwa,” Marweyi told Ubuntu Times.
Three United Nations special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, freedom of opinion, and torture have been called upon to investigate and expose the true circumstances leading to the death of Cameroonian journalist Samuel Wazizi, whose legal name was Samuel Ajiekah Abwue. Paris-based press freedom advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), made the request on August 11, 2020, the organization said in a statement.
Many rights groups, including Reporters Without Borders, have doubted government’s official account of Wazizi’s death. “The government’s version is riddled with inconsistencies and we doubt that we will learn the truth from the promised investigation. We, therefore, urge the United Nations to do everything in their power to ensure that the circumstances resulting in Samuel Wazizi’s death are established,” Paul Coppin, Head of RSF’s Legal Unit, said. After Wazizi’s death was officially made public on June 5, 2020, President Biya promised to carry out an independent and transparent inquiry into the matter, but till now there has been no outcome.
Wazizi’s family, colleagues, and rights groups suspect the journalist was either severely tortured or mistreated. Back then in June, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Africa Programme Coordinator, Angela Quintal said the Cameroonian government’s treatment of journalist Samuel Wazizi was cruel and shocking. “It is unbelievable that authorities covered up his death in custody for 10 months despite repeated inquiries from press freedom advocates and his family, colleagues, friends, and lawyers,” Quintal said.
RSF wants the UN to put pressure on the government of President Paul Biya to disclose those who perpetrated the death of the journalist and prosecute them accordingly.
Wazizi, a Pidgin newscaster and cameraman working for Chillen Muzik Television (CMTV) in Buea was arrested on August 2, 2019, in connection to the ongoing, drawn-out Anglophone crisis. Five days following his arrest, he was transferred by soldiers from the Muea police station, where he had been temporarily detained, to the 21st Motorized Infantry Brigade in Buea. Wazizi was subsequently transferred to an undisclosed facility and held incommunicado until his death. The journalist was suspected of having links with separatists but was never given the opportunity to appear in court for an impartial, free and fair trial. It is very likely the crackdown on Wazizi must have been related to the journalist’s critical reporting of the ongoing separatist conflict between resolute armed separatists seeking to create a state they would call ‘Ambazonia’ and government troops.
Under President Paul Biya, 87, who has been in power for close to four decades, Cameroon has in recent times seen a sharp decline in press freedom, making it difficult for journalists to hold authorities to account. The media landscape has been increasingly hostile that it is common for journalists critical of the regime to suffer intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and detention, as well as torture. Some, like Mbom Sixtus, have been forced to go on exile. Others have been gagged from speaking truth to power.
Cameroon is rated “Not Free” by Freedom House and the central African nation dropped five places in two years to emerged the 134th country in the world on RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
Harare — Amid a mounting political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders have dismissed prospects of rescue coming from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU).
In 2008, SADC helped to broker a government of national unity in Zimbabwe between then-President Robert Mugabe and his erstwhile political nemesis, late Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Party.
Although the MDC back then argued that it had won the 2008 elections, the opposition played out a junior role in Zimbabwe’s rather tense unity government.
Amid reports of rampant human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, South Africa which currently chairs SADC, recently sent an envoy to engage the leaders of the Zimbabwean government.
But, even as this did not irritate some members of the ruling Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), other pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders have cast doubt on whether or not SADC would help end the political acrimony bedeviling this country.
Taurai Kandishaya, who is National Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Citizens Forum, a civil society organization closely related to the governing Zanu-PF, said ‘AU and SADC never said the government of Zimbabwe should stop rights abuses, but they only encouraged the government to continue respecting human rights.’
On South Africa dispatching a special envoy to Zimbabwe following reports of acute human rights abuses, Kandishaya said ‘the special envoys are expected to engage the government of Zimbabwe and relevant stakeholders to identify possible ways in which South Africa can assist Zimbabwe.’
Yet, even as Zanu-PF diehard supporters like Kandishaya try hard to cover up for their party, South Africa which is also the economic superpower of Southern Africa, through the country’s governing Africa National Congress (ANC), acknowledged Zimbabwe is riddled with political challenges.
Lindiwe Zulu who is one of the leaders of the ANC in South Africa went on record in the media claiming that there is a political crisis in Zimbabwe. Ms. Zulu is also South Africa’s Minister of Social Development.
In a statement released on August 4, AU encouraged the government of Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law ‘allowing for freedom of the media, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and the right to information.’
Even as AU said ‘violations of these rights are a breach of the African Charter on human and people’s rights,’ Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders have called for more action from the regional body to extinguish the political flames in the country.
“We continue to urge the AU to not only end issuance of statements, but to act decisively and save Zimbabwean lives,” Obey Sithole, MDC Alliance National Youth Chairperson told Ubuntu Times.
On SADC, Sithole said ‘their history of intervention doesn’t paint a good picture and that provides a justifiable reason for people to doubt their ability to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe.’
Lashing out at AU and SADC, Owen Dhliwayo a Zimbabwean pro-democracy activist said ‘these are mere regional bodies making rather regional pronouncements that have no consequence on the member state.’
Referring to SADC and AU, Wurayai Zembe, leader of the opposition Democratic Party in Zimbabwe, said ‘the regional and continental bodies have not been effective when dealing with Zimbabwe’s electoral problems.’
“The two bodies have been clubs of friends of nationalists who fought for independence from colonialism, some through armed struggles. So, member countries have not criticized one another on matters of poor governance,” Zembe told Ubuntu Times.
Even civil society activist, Claris Madhuku, who heads the Platform for Youth Development, concurred with Zembe.
“AU is run on the basis of comradeship and brotherhood of sitting heads of states. This does not make it easy for this club to seriously chastise a member who has strayed. Zimbabwean problems are complex and will not be solved by these regional blocks,” Madhuku told Ubuntu Times.
Of late, police in Zimbabwe arrested and jailed journalist Hopewell Chin’ono who had become vocal in exposing high profile corruption scandals in Zimbabwe.
They (police) also arrested and incarcerated opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume on charges of inciting public violence after he coordinated a social media drive calling for the Jul.31 anti-government protests against corruption.
Harare, July 20 — Police in Zimbabwe on Monday stormed and broke into the home of Hopewell Chin’ono a top freelance journalist in the Zimbabwean capital Harare before they abducted him, this following another arrest earlier on of opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume for inciting public violence.
Ngarivhume is the coordinator of the Jul.31 scheduled anti-government protests while Chin’ono has reported intensively on the scourge of corruption blighting the Zimbabwean government.
Earlier on in the day as cops stormed his home, Chin’ono tweeted, ‘they are breaking into my home. Alert the world!’
Prior to his arrest, Ngarivhume had also taken to Twitter claiming that hewas receiving death threats from persons sympathetic to the Zimbabwean government.
In arresting Chin’ono, detectives broke a glass door at his Harare home as they attempted to gain entry into the journalist’s house before they seized him while he was live-streaming the intrusion by the errant cops.
Later, Chin’ono was found at Harare Central Police Station despite the dramatic abduction.
Senator David Coltart of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance later took to Twitter writing, ‘I’ve just been informed by a reliable source that Hope is safe and that this is being done by one faction of the government, but it’s an action not supported by others in authority.’
Now, unbeknown to which faction of the government he belongs, upbeat about the journalist’s abduction, Zimbabwe’s Permanent Secretary for Information, Nick Mangwana also took to Twitter writing ‘there is no profession which is above the law. Journalists are not above the law. Lawyers are not above the law. Doctors and nurses are not above the law…’
In a statement, Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa said “the arrests of Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume are designed to intimidate and send a chilling message to journalists, whistleblowers, and activists who draw attention to matters of public interest in Zimbabwe.”
Dar es Salaam, June 25 — The United States has expressed concern over recent actions by the government of Tanzania to revoke media license of an opposition party newspaper it accuses of publishing false information flouting the country’s laws and violating journalism ethics.
Tanzania Daima—a popular Swahili tabloid known for its razor-sharp scathing reports was effectively banned on 24th June by the government’s director of Information, who doubles as Registrar of Newspapers for allegedly, repeatedly flouting national laws in its reportage.
A statement issued by the Embassy of the United States in Dar es Salaam Thursday said the newspaper ban is part of actions to stifle democratic norms in the East African country, which follows a worrying pattern of intimidation of the opposition members, civil society, and media outlets.
“The right to…freedom of expression are enshrined in the Tanzanian constitution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.S Embassy proudly supports freedom of expression and inclusive political participation in all formats,” the embassy said in a statement.
Since 2015, Tanzania has seen a sharp decline in respect for basic freedoms of expression and association, undermining both media freedom and civil society, campaigners said.
The government has enacted tougher laws that repress independent reporting and restrict the works of the media and non-governmental organizations.
Campaigners are increasingly concerned with the on-going crackdown on freedom of expression in Tanzania, urging the government to uphold those rights which are deeply embedded in the constitution.
Human Rights Watch—a global charity working to defend rights and secure justice worldwide described Tanzania’s newspaper ban as a gesture of intolerance to free expression
Since the enactment of the Media Services Act in 2016, several newspapers in Tanzania, including Mwananchi, The Citizen, Mawio, Mseto, Tanzania Daima, and Nipashe, have been subjected to various punishments including fines, ban and cancellation of publishing licenses.
The government claimed that Tanzania Daima newspaper was repeatedly warned to refrain from publishing inflammatory reports but it ignored the warnings.
Martin Malera, the newspaper editor said they had been questioned by the government when they published a story in which a cleric called upon the opposition to demand a free electoral commission.
In two separate reports issued last year, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said repression of the Media, human rights defenders and opposition politicians in Tanzania intensified in 2015.
Both reports found that the government has adopted harsher laws that stifle independent journalism and severely curbing the activities of non-governmental organizations.
Since then newspapers and radio stations have been banned or suspended for contents deemed critical, Human Rights Watch said.
Authorities have repeatedly used the 2015 Cyber Crime Act to prosecute journalists and activists for social media posts, the charity said.
Meanwhile the Media Council of Tanzania—has expressed shock over the newspaper ban, saying it will further curtail media freedom in the coming general elections.
“This decision puts the country in a bad light and casts doubt on level playing field, especially because…the paper was known to stand for alternative views,” said Kajubi Mukajanga, the Secretary-General of the Media Council of Tanzania.
According to him, the Media Services Act of 2016, is a bad law since it gives the government-appointed registrar the whim to complain, prosecute, and deliver a verdict on its own cases.
“The law provides an aggrieved party whose license has been revoked to re-apply for the license to the same authority that revoked it,” Mukajanga said in a statement.
Mukajanga said revoking the newspaper’s license, would deny the workers income thus affecting their livelihoods.
Dar es Salaam, June 8 — A controversial bill seeking to protect the sitting president and other top political leaders from prosecution has provoked anger in Tanzania, with campaigners claiming it will create a clique of elites who are above the law, while preventing the people from holding their elected leaders into account.
The new law comes barely a year after the parliament in the East African country passed amendments to legislation that criminalizes political activities by giving government-appointed registrar of political parties sweeping powers to de-register parties and jail anyone engaging in unauthorized civic education, a move that opposition say would pave way for one-party rule.
Tanzania, a country of 57 million people, has long been regarded as a beacon of hope for Africa’s most stable democracies. The ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi has governed since the country’s independence from Britain.
President John Magufuli, 60, who seeks re-election in this year’s polls scheduled to take place in October, this year, is increasingly becoming authoritarian.
His government’s curb on individual freedoms including the right to peaceful assembly, free speech, and detaining critics have drawn fierce criticism from Western donors supporting the country’s development on annual basis.
The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.3) 2020, presented in the parliament last week and now open for public discussion, among other things seeks to grant presidential immunity despite the presence of a similar law protecting a person with a powerful position against prosecution over offenses committed by that person when their term in office comes to an end.
Article 46 of Tanzania’s constitution states, during the president’s tenure in office, no criminal proceeding against him shall be instituted when he ceases to hold the office of the president.
Sifuni Mchome, Permanent Secretary in the ministry responsible for constitutional and legal affairs said there’s nothing unusual in the proposed bill, currently awaiting parliamentary approval.
The government’s move to provide a legal cloak to those in echelons of power is widely perceived as an attempt to cement the president’s firm grip on power.
Also known as “the Bulldozer” President Magufuli, who became president under the ticket of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, has introduced tougher reforms in the East African second-largest economy, curbing systemic corruption and public malfeasance as well as introducing free education from primary to tertiary education.
Local human rights campaigners have vented their frustration over the bill, claiming they had been accorded a short time to scrutinize the proposed amendments and air their views.
In a statement to the media, the campaigners stated that the proposed changes contradict tenets of the country’s constitution and trample on the principles of separation of powers, where the government is accountable to the parliament, composed of elected representatives of the people and an independent judiciary that dispenses justice without fear or favor.
“The basic foundation of any democratic society are the three institutions of government: the Legislature, the Judiciary, and the Executive all working independently to hold each other accountable for performance, delivery, and ethics,” campaigners said in a statement.
According to them, the proposed new law will give the president, the country’s Attorney General unwarranted mandate to dictate parliamentary business.
Onesmo Olengurumwa, a renowned human rights lawyer and director leading a nationwide coalition of rights defenders said the proposed amendments will affect people’s rights as spelled out in the constitution while denying them the opportunity to directly hold their leaders accountable through the court of law.
Critics said that the idea that all people are equal under the law is not a relative concept, adding that the proposed change is an attempt to shake the foundation of the country’s constitution that sets a bad precedent.
Dennis Bugumba, a Tanzanian public affairs analyst based in The United Kingdom, criticized the habit of leaving matters of national importance in the hands of the opposition.
“If this bill goes through, it will be all over. And yet, society’s silence on it is eerily deafening, and its indifference sobering.” He wrote on his Facebook page adding “when the opposition is defeated and the bill passes, we then blame the opposition for being incompetent, while lauding our rulers.”
Across the African continent, an unprecedented wave of youth-led uprisings is shaking the pillars of political regimes that have held power for decades. In...
The trending successful military coups in West Africa today indicate the continuation of political processes and leadership by another method. Their executions have been...
Needless to say, the 2023 elections happened amid overwhelming disillusionment with the system and popular discontent with the major establishment political parties—the ruling All...
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is arguably the African Union’s (AU) biggest project since the launch of the continent’s Agenda 2063 in...
There are intense political and intellectual debates unfolding in Africa. Since February 24 last year, when war broke out in Europe following Russia’s special...
A packed FNB stadium with over one hundred thousand supporters demonstrated the mass appeal of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) amongst South African voters...
The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) launched the #WeAreEqual Campaign on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at a banquet ceremony held in...
An incident involving a thirteen-year-old girl child at the Crowthorne Christian Academy in South Africa led to the schools' closure and the re-sparking of...
To most academics, intellectuals, and pragmatists advocating for a genuine Pan-African renaissance six decades after the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU,...
The Western liberal consensus has long been intervening and interfering in Africa. The first form of intervention was through the slave trade from the...
