The arrest and brief detention of opposition leader Tundu Lissu accused of holding an illegal gathering surprised those who thought that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had consolidated power and was steadily restoring democratic freedoms...

Lissu the former Chadema party leader who returned to Tanzania in January after several years of recovering in Belgium from an assassination attempt by former President John Magufuli's security services has been holding political rallies across the country (Dispatches 1/2/23 Tundu Lissu's return prompts first opposition rallies for seven years)...

The opposition Chadema party celebrated Tundu Lissu's return to Tanzania after five years in effective exile in Belgium with its first mass campaign rally since 2016 weeks after President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted the ban on political gatherings imposed by her predecessor John Magufuli in 2016 (Dispatches 21/3/22 Exiles return and investors take a look a year after Magufuli's death)...

Tundu Lissu Vice-President of the opposition Chadema party is to return to Tanzania from exile in Belgium a week after Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe was released from prison and terror charges against him were dropped...

Two weeks ago in another step towards restoring the rights of opposition parties she met Mbowe's predecessor Tundu Lissu in Brussels...

At the meeting Kabwe urged President Samia Suluhu to look at 'using all legal channels' to have the charges against the Chadema leader dropped phraseology that prompted an angry riposte from Chadema vice chair Tundu Lissu who demanded that the government 'simply scrap the charges without any conditions whatsoever'...

Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) presidential candidate Tundu Lissu told Africa Confidential on 7 March he had been hearing rumours about Magufuli's health but nothing had been confirmed...