Has Suluhu damaged her election chances?
- Irungu Houghton
- 25 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Despite the Kenyan Government’s silence, the detailed accounts of East African human rights defenders Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire at the hands of Tanzanian police officers remains deeply disturbing one week on. Their courage to tell all has opened the world’s eyes to some of the worst human rights abuses in East Africa. The veil lifted, this week international attention shifted to the persecution of prominent religious leaders who have dared to criticize the Government’s behaviour.
Although President Samia Suluhu Hassan stubbornly holds on to her “nation of peace” narrative, her government has sharply eroded Tanzania’s human rights and governance record. Behind the façade of political pluralism is a system that actively prevents opposition parties from holding rallies, selling manifestos or holding the government accountable. Journalists and editors are harassed or detained, and media houses operate an informal self-censorship policy to avoid losing their licences. Judges are political appointees and unlike Kenya, the Judiciary does not have any budgetary independence.
If the world was shocked by the joint interview, the experience is even worse for Tanzanians. Human rights defenders and lawyers have been subjected to abductions and torture. Organisations have faced severe restrictions or deregistration for documenting and advocating an end to human rights violations.
Last July, rights activist Edgar “Sativa” Mwakabela testified of his abduction in Dar es Salaam and subsequent interrogation and torture over several days in police stations across Tanzania. In December, advocate Alphonce Lusako was nearly abducted for representing clients in controversial cases. Two months later, this practice was repeated on Kenyan soil with journalist Maria Tsehai-Sarungi.
Over the last month, the Government has brazenly widened its dragnet to silence religious leaders with millions of followers. Disturbed by the rising number of domestic and international enforced disappearances, Glory of Christ Church Bishop and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) parliamentarian Josephat Gwajima announced a seven-day prayer campaign for justice and peace on 1 June. A day later, the Tanzanian Government declared he was a danger to peace and national stability. His church was banned, police officers attempted to arrest the evangelical bishop, and more than 2,000 places of worship nation-wide were forced to close with immediate effect.
These dramatic incidents are sadly, not the first. On 30 May, Huduma ya Kristo Pastor Steven Jacob was abducted and later dumped in the West Kilimanjaro Forest. On 30 April, Dr Charles Kitima was almost killed in a brutal assault outside of his home. As Episcopal Conference Secretary General, Kitima leads 23 million Catholics in Tanzania. Despite his injuries, like Kenyan Presbyterian Church of East Africa Reverend Timothy Njoya 35 years ago, the religious leader has bravely called on Tanzanians to “not be afraid to pay the price for standing up for justice and fulfilling our duties to the country".
All universal human rights can be grouped into four freedoms. They are the freedom of expression, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom to worship. With the recent attacks on religious leaders, the Tanzanian government has now violated the fourth. Freedom of religious conscience and the right to worship with others is cardinal to all religions and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Revelation 2:10 in the Bible urges Christians to not fear ten days of suffering at the hands of the devil for their faith, while Quran verse 10.99 affirms religious freedom.
Given elections are barely a few months away, it is not logically clear why CCM should persecute human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians and now religious leaders. Catholics alone, are roughly a third of Tanzania’s 66 million population and about the same number of registered voters in the last election.
Like most authoritarians, the Government of Samia Suluhu Hassan has missed one simple mathematics lesson. As a Tanzanian academic pointed out this week, state violence against one person rarely hurts just the victim, it hurts ten people. Wounded and radicalised, the ten inevitably swarm and overwhelm the perpetrator. It is time for a Damascus moment, Madam President.
This opinion was also published in the Saturday Standard, 7 June 2025.