A dispute over legal access has prompted a hunger strike by Tundu Lissu, Tanzania’s opposition leader, CHADEMA spokesperson Brenda Rupia said, as he awaits a treason-case ruling.
Rupia wrote on X that the protest began Monday after Lissu’s lawyers were unable to enter the prison. She did not identify who denied them entry.
On Saturday, CHADEMA chief legal counsel Rugemeleza Nshala told journalists that Lissu had planned the action after meetings with his lawyers were not private. Nshala said the arrangement violated a court order.
Elizabeth Mbezi, a spokesperson for the Tanzania Prisons Service, said the service would provide further information about Lissu soon. Reuters reported that government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa had not answered a request for comment by publication.
Reuters reported that prosecutors accuse Lissu of treason over remarks they say encouraged an uprising and disruption of last year’s general election. Lissu denied the charge; his lawyer has described the case as politically motivated.
Tanzania’s electoral commission excluded CHADEMA from the election after the party did not sign a required code-of-conduct document. A government-appointed inquiry put the death toll from violence after the vote at 518 or more and blamed protesters.
Lissu was runner-up in the 2020 presidential election, while President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the 2025 election, Reuters reported. Reuters said Lissu’s detention and alleged abductions of government critics have drawn scrutiny to Hassan’s human rights record. The government disputes claims of widespread rights abuses and says it remains committed to human rights. It ordered an inquiry into reports of abductions in 2024; findings have not been published.
EconoTimes previously covered Amnesty International Kenya’s appeal to locate activist Twaha Mwaipaya after he went missing in a taxi near Nairobi. Amnesty said three men made the driver leave the vehicle before it was driven away with Mwaipaya inside. CHADEMA vice chairman John Heche asked Kenya for help locating him, Reuters reported.
Reuters reported that the court is due to rule in Lissu’s case Nov. 6.
