DAR ES SALAAM – Police in Tanzania have raided an office of an opposition party which criticized the state of the economy since when President John Magufuli took over office.
The Tuesday raid on Alliance for Change and Transparency led Zitto Kabwe has been criricised by the human rights organization.
“The police have just ended a raid on the headquarters of the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT) Wazalendo,” read a statement from the party released on Tuesday.
Kabwe, a fierce critic of the government has been arrested three times since main opposition Chief Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party was shot and wounded in September.
The statement said police seized a laptop, a flash drive. The opposition leader had said on October 12, that the economy and national security were deteriorating.
After Kabwe’s statements, Magufuli accused the party of undermining his economic achievements and asked prosecutors to go after those publishing information contrary to official statistics.
The senior ACT Wazalendo members were on Monday summoned to police who were released after questioning.
Since his October 2016 election, government has shut down newspapers, banned opposition rallies, switched off live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions and used a draconian “cybercrimes” law to jail critics.
President Magufuli is now being using highhandedness to attack the media and the opposition.
Lissu was shot after having a series of run-ins with the government and has been arrested at least six times this year.
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