The president blamed for shattering the country’s aura of stability

Tanzania is still reeling from the worst post-election violence it has seen in decades, a crisis that has shaken its long-standing reputation as a beacon of peace and stability in Africa.

It also sparked a rare rebuke of the country from regional and continental organisations.

In a challenging inauguration speech on Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the election was fair and transparent but acknowledged that people had died during the protests. It blamed foreign actors for the bloody protests.

The death toll is unclear, but families continue to search for or bury relatives killed following the recent disputed election, which Samia won with 98% of the vote.

Samia, the soft-spoken leader whose calm and gentle demeanor initially inspired optimism when she took power in 2021 after the sudden death of her authoritarian predecessor, John Magufuli.

But that has changed now.

“Semiticism has thrust Tanzania into an intense winter of protests, instability and uncertainty,” Professor Peter Kagwanga, a Kenyan policy analyst, told the BBC.

The protests, organized by young people, drew clear parallels with the global mobilization led by Generation Z against entrenched leadership and unresponsive governments.

Analysts say that although the unrest was unprecedented for Tanzania, it was preceded by a tense political climate — marked by stalled reforms, years of youth anger, power struggles within the ruling party, and ongoing persecution of opposition leaders.

“The protests were just the culmination of years of anger and grievances that Tanzanians had bottled up,” said Godfrey Mwambimbwa, a Tanzanian-born political cartoonist known as Jadu.

Jadu’s satirical cartoon, which depicts President Samia as authoritarian and intolerant of political competition, has been widely circulated on social media.

Veteran Tanzanian journalist Generali Ulimwengu described in an article how the recent elections were “the boiling point of a communal stew that has been simmering for decades in a slow cooker unnoticed by an absent-minded governor, completely immersed in the middle of the gravy train.”

Gado expressed similar sentiments, accusing the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party of “burying its head in the sand” and not responding to Tanzanians’ growing calls for change.

“CCM has disenfranchised the masses over the years and ignored the very state institutions that keep it in power,” said the satirist, who is based in neighboring Kenya but closely follows events in his homeland.

Charles Onyango-Obu, a political commentator on East African affairs, agrees that the CCP “long ago mistook calm for maturity, but it was nothing more than age and arrogance hiding behind a glorious history.”

“People confused silence with peace, without realizing that it was the calm of exhaustion,” he wrote.

In contrast to other parties in the region, the CCM, which emerged from the Tanganyika African National Union, is a post-colonial liberation party, and has maintained a strong grip not only on the levers of power but also on the psyche of the nation.

But it is the nature of this latest election that has revealed a shocking new side of Tanzania, a country long seen as shy about protest, especially when compared to neighboring Kenya.

In the months leading up to Election Day, the CCM government worked to systematically eliminate any credible competition, according to analysts.

The two main opposition leaders were banned from running in the elections – Tundu Lissu is in detention on charges of treason, which he denies, while Luhaga Mbena’s candidacy was rejected on technical grounds.

According to Professor Kagwanga, this act alone negates what Tanzania and its founding president Julius Nyerere stand for.

“You are not imprisoning your opponents, you are seeking support from the people against the opposition,” Professor Kagwanga said.

The 65-year-old president, known as Mama Samia, faces mounting accusations of heading an oppressive government responsible for violently crushing historic protests.

Her leadership approach was initially admired both at home and abroad, as she allowed opposition parties to organize rallies and criticize the government without fear of serious repercussions.

She has pledged to reopen Tanzania to the world through her “4R” principle – Reconciliation, Resilience, Reconstruction and Reform.

Having been born and raised in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago known for its humility and hospitality, it was no surprise that Samia felt relieved when she took power in 2021.

But analysts say that while Samia had her sights set on a second term, she began to see internal party pressures within the CCM and the return of the opposition as a threat to her ambition.

Over the past three years, she has reshuffled the cabinet several times and replaced the leaders of the army and intelligence, in steps seen as getting rid of those loyal to her predecessor.

“Within the CCM, it resorted to the Magufuli scenario to manipulate the party, centralize power and create a cabal of trusted loyalists as the new fulcrum of power,” Professor Kagwanga said.

Samia’s calculated political maneuvering – which earned her the nickname “Simba Jikai” (lioness in Swahili) among her supporters – paid off when the CCM party nominated her as its presidential candidate in January.

Months after the elections, a wave of kidnappings, arrests and brutal killings of opposition members swept the country, dashing hopes for reforms and reconciliation.

The political space has shrunk dramatically in the run-up to the latest elections, which have been overshadowed by internet outages and curfews.

Hundreds may have died in the post-election unrest, according to the opposition. The authorities have not yet announced an official death toll.

The violence was shocking to a nation that had cultivated an image of calm, consensus and order for nearly six decades.

“The myth of Tanzanian exceptionalism is in ruins,” said Mr. Onyango Obo.

In an unusual criticism, the African Union and the Southern African Regional Development Community said Samia’s electoral victory did not meet acceptable democratic standards, citing ballot box stuffing, repression and systemic flaws.

The main opposition party, Chadema, rejected the results as “completely fabricated.”

Professor Kagwanga said: “The challenge that Samia faced was not to win the elections. Rather, it was to win the hearts and minds of Tanzanians and the people of East Africa that was the reason she was elected in a fair competition. Unfortunately, Samia chose to take the crown. She closed all avenues to fair competition.”

As she begins her second term, analysts say Samia faces increasing international scrutiny that could undermine her legitimacy to lead the East African country.