Tanzania will not hold independence day celebrations on December 9 following mounting calls for nationwide protests over mass killings linked to last month’s disputed elections.
Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba said on Monday that the annual festivities had been cancelled. He announced that the funds would instead be directed toward rebuilding infrastructure damaged during the unrest that erupted after the October 29 vote.
Rights groups and the opposition say hundreds, and possibly thousands, of protesters were shot dead by security forces. Demonstrations broke out after widespread allegations of vote rigging. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 98 percent of the vote, but key rivals had been jailed or barred from running. Observers reported irregularities and signs of manipulation at multiple stages of the process.
Nchemba urged the public to avoid further confrontation and to focus on dialogue, warning that the country could not afford another cycle of violence. His remarks did little to quell concerns over the state’s handling of the crisis, including the decision not to disclose how many people were killed or injured.
The government has established a commission of inquiry to investigate the unrest. Opposition leaders dismissed the move, arguing that the panel is dominated by ruling party loyalists and cannot deliver an impartial assessment.
Hundreds of young people were arrested after the protests and charged with treason, an offence that carries the death penalty. The scale of the arrests drew international criticism and heightened domestic tension.
In an attempt to ease public anger, President Hassan called for some of the cases to be withdrawn. On Monday, reports emerged of dozens of suspects being released from remand centres.
Prosecutors said charges had been dropped against forty seven of forty eight people in one Dar es Salaam court, twenty four in Arusha and fifty seven in Mwanza. Those freed will remain under one year supervision orders.
The government has not provided a timeline for when the inquiry will conclude or how its findings will be made public.
