Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has publicly justified the fatal use of force against anti-government demonstrators during the recent post-election unrest. Speaking on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s economic hub, the President asserted that the actions taken were essential to prevent a potential overthrow of the established government.
The October 29th election, which saw President Hassan retain her seat with a commanding 98% of the vote, has been heavily criticized by opposition groups and human rights advocates who claim the results were rigged. These groups allege that over a thousand people were killed by security forces during the three days of protests that followed the controversial poll.
President Hassan firmly defended the government’s response to the violence. “The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand,” she stated during her address. She then posed a rhetorical question: “When we are told that we used excessive force in that incident… Were we supposed to simply watch that mob of demonstrators who were prepared to overthrow the government until they succeeded?”
The government has yet to provide an official casualty figure from the unrest, amidst widespread reports that a number of bodies were never released to the grieving families. Adding to the tension, fresh nationwide protests have been slated for December 9th.
The fallout from the election extends beyond Tanzania’s borders. President Hassan used her speech to sharply criticize European Union parliamentarians who recently voted to suspend aid to Tanzania in response to the violence. She accused the European representatives of harboring colonial attitudes, declaring, “They still think they are our masters, they are our colonisers.”
Regarding the election process itself, President Hassan claimed that opposition candidates were not barred from participating but chose to “refuse to enter themselves because they already knew they would not succeed.” However, the main opposition party, Chadema, had refused to sign a new “electoral code of conduct” earlier this year, insisting that comprehensive reforms were needed first to ensure a fairer political playing field after years of alleged vote-rigging.
The political tensions are running high, with Chadema leader Tundu Lissu arrested and charged with treason—an offense that carries the death penalty. Opposition parties have consistently accused the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has never relinquished power since independence, of orchestrating a campaign of abductions and murders. They claim this campaign targets not just high-profile figures but even low-level online critics in the period leading up to major votes,
