The Tanzania Field Force Unit (FFU) manning security at a Police
Station. Police in the country have promised a robust response to any
demonstrations against President John Magufuli on Thursday. FILE PHOTO |
NATION
Tanzania deployed heavily armed police officers across major
towns and cities on Wednesday in a bid to block anti-government protests
called by a US-based Tanzanian social media activist.
The
banned demonstrations - timed to take place on Thursday’s anniversary
of the union between mainland Tanzania and the Indian Ocean archipelago
of Zanzibar - have been organised by self-exiled activist Mange Kimambi.
“Those
who plan to demonstrate tomorrow will seriously suffer ... they will be
beaten like stray dogs,” Gilles Muroto, police chief in Tanzania’s
administrative capital Dodoma told journalists on Wednesday.
Arrests
In
the northern town of Arusha, an opposition stronghold, police on
Tuesday arrested seven people accused of mobilising fellow Tanzanians to
take part in the planned protests.
Kimambi has 1.8
million followers on the social media site Instagram, where she
describes herself as a “democracy activist, proudly Tanzanian”, based in
Los Angeles.
She has said she fears being harmed by the authorities if she returns to Tanzania because of her criticism of the authorities.
Television
images showed scores of uniformed police in full riot gear patrolling
several of Tanzania’s biggest towns, with authorities warning citizens
not to take part in the street demonstrations that have been outlawed by
the government.
Protests in Tanzania, even on a small
scale, would pose a challenge to President John Magufuli who has been
accused of cracking down on dissent and freedom of expression since
taking office in late 2015.
Unlawful street protests
Magufuli
warned last month that anyone who participates in illegal
demonstrations will be met with the full force of the law, saying his
government will not allow its economic reforms to be derailed by
unlawful street protests.
But Kimambi is rallying
Tanzanians via Instagram, Twitter and Telegram chat groups to take to
the streets on Apr. 26 to demand Magufuli’s ouster after previous
demonstrations called by the main opposition CHADEMA party in 2016 were
called off.
“They don’t have enough police officers to
threaten and intimidate the whole of Tanzania,” Kimambi told her
Instagram followers on Wednesday in reaction to the police show of
force.
The US embassy in Tanzania has issued an alert
over the possibility of an outbreak of violent demonstrations, warning
its citizens to keep a low profile.
Maria
Sarungi-Tsehai, a prominent Tanzanian communications expert, wrote in a
blog post earlier this month that the government’s vow to crack down on
protests only served to highlight Kimambi’s ability to motivate young
Tanzanians.
“If a woman in Los Angeles can mobilise
Tanzanian citizens to demand their rights through a demonstration and to
hold the Tanzanian government accountable, and the government from the
highest office to the heads of police issue threats against
demonstrators , it goes to show that the Mange Kimambi effect is real,”
Sarungi-Tsehai wrote.
“We are all individually and collectively powerful as citizens.”
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