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Tanzania’s Interior Minister, Patrobas Katambi, announced a complete ban on all political rallies on Friday, acting less than two weeks before youth-led protests scheduled for July 7.
Katambi informed lawmakers in parliament that security threats prompted the immediate restriction, though he declined to specify how long the ban would last.
The demonstrators intend to gather on the upcoming July 7 public holiday to demand democratic reforms and justice for citizens killed during last year’s election violence.
A government-appointed commission of inquiry reported in April that the election unrest claimed at least 518 lives after authorities excluded leading opposition candidates from the ballot.
While Tanzanian authorities consistently deny allegations from human rights groups that security services used excessive force, the commission placed the blame for the violence entirely on the demonstrators.
This finding infuriated opposition groups, who accused the commission of bias and asserted that the true death toll from the election unrest reaches into the thousands.
The political tension follows last year’s presidential election, where officials declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan the winner with nearly 98 per cent of the vote.
Hassan previously characterised the election unrest as a foreign-funded attempt to overthrow her government, though she provided no evidence to support the claim.
