Another, Bloodier Gen Z Revolution - Tanzania In Flames After Hassan Steals Election

Viktor Schlatte
2 days ago
3 min read

‘Massacres are carried out during night hours when no-one is there to witness them.’ Full morgues were described by Tanzanian doctors following the country’s elections at the end of October.

When President Samia Suluhu Hassan came to power in 2021 following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, she was hailed for her easing of political repression, and seemed to be a key cog in a journey back to full democracy in Tanzania. Yet here we are, four years later, and she is responsible for the deaths of at least 800, with the full toll potentially entering the thousands. Opposition leaders urged Tanzanians to boycott the elections, which Hassan won with a remarkable 97% of the vote. Tundu Lissu, leader of the CHADEMA party, was held on trumped up treason charges, and therefore unable to run. Meanwhile Luhaga Mpina, who would have run on for the Alliance for Change and Transparency, was barred from running because the party had supposedly not complied with Tanzania’s primary nomination procedures. This left Hassan to run virtually unopposed and the Tanzanian people furious. On election day a curfew was introduced nationwide, and internet access was shut off, but young people still managed to spread information on social media, and protests took place. Most of the protesters were young people, mirroring events in Nepal and Madagascar this year. These protests were suppressed with extraordinary violence, with police using tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protesters. Due to the internet blackout and absence of foreign journalists, it is hard to know quite the scale of the violence, but at least 800 Tanzanians, including some children, are feared dead.

President Samia clearly recognised the power which young people hold and their extraordinary ability to mobilise following ‘Gen Z revolutions’ in Madagascar and Nepal. In the aftermath of these protests, she has quickly acted to prevent this from happening again, while the bodies continue to pile high. The government has acted to charge hundreds of protestors with treason. The number could be as high as 250, and with treason being a non-bailable offence, they will be incarcerated for the foreseeable future. A Tanzanian human-rights lawyer described that many of the accused were sick and ‘some of them have been beaten.’ It is feared that a number of these will be sentenced to death, as treason is a capital offence in Tanzania, although almost all sentenced to death end up simply with life imprisonment. The government has claimed that these make up a group attempting to destabilise the nation, but the group stretches through all walks of life, including businesspeople, peasants and crucially, influencers. Jenifer Jovin is a Gen-Z influencer and businesswoman who is charged with treason after encouraging her followers to buy gas masks to protect themselves from tear gas in the event of state violence. In the Iringa region, Hodeni Kaisari Kione, a ‘businessman’ of 13 years of age is also charged with treason. The Tanzanian government is threatening to sentence a 13-year-old boy to death. One witness said that he attended the funerals of children aged 9 and 11. The scale of the violence of the President Samia’s government can truly not be understated. In many cases the violence was virtually indiscriminate, simply trying to suppress its people into submission with this extraordinary violence.

The protests in Tanzania speak to the fact that young people in Africa have had enough of despotic governments. This has come in a period where elections in Ivory Coast and Cameroon both returned presidents amid election day violence, with the latter becoming the world’s oldest president. Both countries also saw key opposition figures barred from standing. African people are becoming sick of this playbook. What good is democracy to them if it is consistently violated? Africans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with democracy, with more than half of Africans willing to accept military rule if a ‘democratically’ elected leader abuses power, and general support for democracy slipping. And if democracy is in this form, with hundreds dead on the streets of Dar es Salaam, then who can blame them? As we have seen, young people in Nepal and Madagascar have dared to demand better, with both seeing successful revolutions led by Gen Z. With Tanzania seeing a similar trend, clearly President Samia has become scared, with this tragic campaign striking at the heart of Tanzania’s young population. This treatment will only serve to embolden a radicalised youth, young people have made it clear that they demand better for their future, and corrupt leaders have become scared.