On the first anniversary of Tanzania’s disputed election, Amnesty International says not a single official has been investigated for the crackdown that followed the vote, in which a government-appointed commission recorded 518 deaths. The commission’s report has never been made public.
The vote
Tanzania’s general election on October 29, 2025, returned President Samia Suluhu Hassan with a declared 98 percent of the vote. Her two main challengers were excluded from the ballot, and Tundu Lissu, the 58-year-old leader of the main opposition party, Chadema, had been put on trial for treason ahead of the poll, preventing him from standing. The opposition dismissed the result as a mockery of democracy.
Protests followed in cities across the country. The BBC verified multiple videos of police shooting toward protesters, and footage posted online showed heavily armed units blocking demonstrators and firing tear gas. A government-appointed commission of inquiry later said 518 people died from “unnatural causes” during the unrest, including 197 who were shot dead.
The commission handed its report to Samia in April 2026. It has yet to be made public. In August she inaugurated a second commission, this one to identify those who planned, funded, coordinated or executed the violence, as well as to investigate the excessive use of force and the whereabouts of missing persons.
The families
Neema Munuo’s daughter, Maria Chami, was 18 when she was shot dead on the day of the election. Munuo told the BBC this week she wants the government to acknowledge her suffering. Mwajuma Hamisi, 32, lost her husband, George Kisivani, who was shot in the northern city of Arusha on election day and died two days later. “I lost my husband, upon whom we, a family with five children, depended,” she said. She now sells vegetables at a nearby market.
Meshack Sane, 33, a father of three, was shot in the leg in Arusha. He told the BBC he has undergone more than five major operations and cannot afford the further surgery he needs, and that hospitals initially refused to treat injured people in the wake of the violence. The BBC noted it had not independently verified his account of those refusals. “The government should look into the situation of those of us who have suffered these tragedies,” he said.
The law as a weapon
In its anniversary report, Amnesty International said that instead of delivering justice, the authorities have intensified attacks on civic space, increasingly weaponizing counterterrorism laws against government critics, opposition supporters, media organizations and dissenting members of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi party. Between September 3 and 17, the group interviewed 17 people, including victims of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and abductions, and verified charge sheets for people it says were arbitrarily arrested and charged with terrorism.
Among the cases it documented: Ibrahim Myovella, a youth leader from Chadema, who went missing with two friends on April 18 after reporting to a police station in Iringa as their bail conditions required; Mashaka Nestory Kindikwa, 37, a former ruling-party official abducted from his home on June 25 by seven men believed to be security officers; and David Djumbe, a personal assistant to Lissu, who was abducted near his Dar es Salaam home in May and severely beaten before escaping. Police denied holding the missing men.
Stefano Patrick, 26, told Amnesty he was arrested in Dar es Salaam in July after expressing support for protests and held for 47 days without being charged in court. He said interrogators beat him and demanded to know who was funding the protests. Amnesty said Tanzanian authorities did not respond to its request for comment. The authorities have repeatedly denied accusations of widespread abuses and say the government is committed to respecting human rights; Samia has insisted the election was fair and transparent and blamed foreigners for the unrest, saying it was part of a plot to overthrow her.
What comes next
A verdict in Lissu’s treason trial is due next week. Earlier this week he went on a hunger strike after what he said was a denial of access to his lawyers, an allegation prison authorities denied; his lawyer, Dickson Matata, told the BBC on Wednesday that a meeting had been granted and Lissu was eating again.
Amnesty says the new commission must address the role of security forces in the crackdown and publish its findings. “President Suluhu’s continued refusal to release the Commission of Inquiry report not only entrenches a culture of secrecy, but it also perpetuates impunity,” said Tigere Chagutah, the group’s regional director for East and Southern Africa. For the families marking the anniversary, the demands are more immediate: acknowledgement, answers and help with hospital bills.
Esmé Brooks · November 1, 2026 · Global Politics & Human Rights