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Katika makala yake yenye kichwa "Terrorising Academic Freedom in Tanzania" Profesa Issa Shivji amekosoa mashitaka ya ugaidi yanayoendelea nchini, akisema ni ukandamizwa kwa uhuru wa kitaaluma na ongezeko la matumizi ya nguvu za dola nchini Tanzania.
Akijadili kuhusu kukamatwa kwa wanataaluma, Profesa Shivji ameangazia kesi ya Melkisedeki Kitunzi Kaijage, mhadhiri msaidizi wa Chuo Kikuu cha Dodoma (UDOM), aliyekamatwa Julai 2026 kwa tuhuma za kuhamasisha maandamano ya Siku ya Saba Saba.
Awali alishikiliwa kinyume cha sheria kwa siku 17 bila kufikishwa mahakamani, na baada ya Mahakama Kuu kuamuru apewe dhamana, polisi walimbadilishia mashtaka na kumfungulia kesi isiyo na dhamana ya ugaidi.
Shivji anaeleza kuwa hati ya mashtaka dhidi ya Kaijage (iliyodai alitishia kuchoma majengo ya umma na nyumba za polisi) imekosa ushahidi na maelezo ya msingi. Anasisitiza kuwa mashtaka haya makubwa hayana lengo la kutenda haki, bali ni mbinu ya kuwaadhibu na kupandikiza hofu ili kunyamazisha wasomi na wanataaluma wengine.
Kuhusu mazingira ya ukandamizaji nchini, Profesa Shivji amehusisha ukamatwa huko na wimbi pana la ukandamizaji nchini Tanzania, akitolea mfano wahadhiri wengine wawili wa Chuo Kikuu cha St. John's (UDOM) waliokamatwa baada ya kufundisha kuhusu kashfa za ufisadi wa kihistoria. Pia anagusia mauaji ya vijana wengi wakati wa uchaguzi wa Oktoba 2025 na kesi za uhaini/ugaidi zinazowakabili viongozi na wanachama wa CHADEMA.
Ameelezea pia jinsi kukamatwa huko kwa Dk Kaijage, amesema vyama vya wafanyakazi wa vyuo vikuu (kama UDOMASA na THTU), asasi za kikanda (ACAF), na vyama vya upinzani vililaani ukamatwa huo, ingawa mwandishi anasikitishwa na ukimya wa chama cha wanataaluma wa Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam (UDASA).
Amesema jumuiya ya wasomi barani Afrika ipo njiapanda kutokana na mifumo ya kiimla na changamoto za kijamii. Anatoa wito kwa wanataaluma kuchagua ama kunyamazishwa na kupotea, au kuendelea kupaza sauti za upinzani na kuwajibika kwa jamii, bila kujali gharama zake.
Soma zaidi kwenye attachment.
ENGLISH :
CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 10, July 2026
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Terrorising Academic Freedom in Tanzania
An Article By : Issa G. Shivji
Photo: Professor Emeritus
University of Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Abstract
On 3 July 2026, Melkisedeki Kitunzi Kaijage, an assistant lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Dodoma (UDOM), was summoned to appear at the police station. He presented himself there on 8 July, 2026 accompanied by the deputy chairman of the University of Dodoma Academic Staff Association (UDOMASA), a
lawyer by profession. Kaijage was
taken into police custody allegedly for having incited people to
demonstrate on the national public holidaycalled Saba Saba, held on 7 July.
This was the second time Kaijage
had been arrested. ‘On December
9, 2025, he was arrested over a
lecture delivered the previous day,
after informers in his lectureroom allegedly told police he was inciting demonstrations planned for that date’ (Kuwanda 2026).
Kaijage remained in custody for
seventeen days, contrary to the
law, which requires the police to
charge an accused person in court within twenty-four hours.
UDOMASA filed an application in the High Court on 12 July. The case
was eventually heard on 21 July 2026.The judge ruled that Kaijage be released on bail.
While the family and UDOMASA were processing bail, on 23 July, 2026 Kaijage was brought to the magistrate’s court
on charges of terrorism, an offence which is not bailable. The particulars of the offence on the charge sheet read thus:
MELKISEDEK KITUNZIKAIJAGE,
on 03rd day ofJuly 2026 at the University of
Dodoma area within Dodoma
Region, committed a terrorist
act to wit; threatening to burn
public buildings and police
residences within the United
Republic of Tanzania, with the
aim of seriously intimidating
members of the Public of the
United Republic of Tanzania.
The charge is dated 22 July 2026 —
That is, a day after the High Court’s ruling. The particulars of the offence read as if they have been cut and pasted from a template. They singularly lack the necessary details that could enable the accused to meet the accusation.
Where exactly in the university were the threats issued? In
a lecture room? Under a tree? In a
public hall? Were the threats verbal or written?
What was the medium used to issue the threat—social media? a lecture? a public rally?
What was the audience—students ? passers-by? street vendors?
What were the contents of the threat?
A host of other questions could be
posed but they would be unnecessary. The objective of the drafter of the charge is clear—to chargeKaijage with an unbailable offence not only to ‘punish’ the accused but to drive fear among and intimidate his academic peers.
No reasonable Tanzanian could
imagine that a university lecturer
would issue a threat to burn public buildings and police residences.
But there we are! We are being told that even after the unrest around the general elections on 29 October 2025 resulted in the killings of hundreds of youths, and the subsequent all-pervasive fear that reigns over the country, we still have an isolated Tanzanian courageous enough to issue threats to burn public buildings and police residences.
Kaijage was promptly transferred
from police custody to Isanga prison, ready for a long haul in custody. The case is likely to follow
the same pattern, of a long spell
of remand, that is becoming the
new normal. Every time the case is
called for mention, the prosecution
applies for adjournment on spurious grounds like ‘investigations are not complete’.
Unfortunately,our courts invariably oblige without further ado. At the least, the court could raise the obvious question: Why was the accused arrested in the first place if the investigations were not complete?
And in this case, there are lots of
other questions. Initially, the police
took Kaijage into custody on charges of incitement, not terrorism. So, presumably within a day after the court order of release they found out that in fact he had not actually incited the public to demonstrate but rather threatened to burn public buildings and police residences
to intimidate the public.
Which is which ? You don’t intimidate thepublic that you are encouraging todemonstrate. Or maybe, in police thinking, Kaijage’s original intention was to incite the public but while in police custody he changed his mind and decided to intimidate the public! This may sound illogical and absurd—but then absurdity is not foreign to coercive state apparatuses that thrive on the logic of force rather than the force of logic.
Kaijage’s case is not isolated. On 3
July 2026 two other lecturers, Johaiven Revelian Bikongolo and Titus Joseph Kituli from St John’s University of Tanzania at Dodoma, were arrested on allegations of mobilising demonstrations for the upcoming Saba Saba Day.
It is said that one of the lecturers was arraigned after delivering a university lecture on Ethics and Good Governance during which historical corruption scandals were discussed.
The ghosts of non-accountability
and lack of public integrity continue to haunt the powers-that-be. They cannot even withstand the recalling of past scandals, perhaps for fear that current scandals might also surface.
To the credit of UDOMASA and
the Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Trade Union (THTU), they issued statements condemning the arrests and detentions and calling
for the immediate release of the academics.
The Africa Coalition for
Academic Freedom (ACAF) based
in Accra, Ghana also issued a statement addressed to the President of Tanzania. In addition, two opposition parties—ACT-Wazalendo and CHADEMA —condemned the detention. Comments and postings
on social media expressing apprehension for the future of academic freedom and autonomy of the university as the site of debates and critical thinking have continued.
One conspicuous silence so far, regrettably, has been that of the University of Dar es Salaam Academic Staff Association (UDASA), which has yet to issue a statement of solidarity. UDASA, by the way, is the originator of the respected Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic
Freedom and Social Responsibility of Academics adopted in 1990.
This Declaration in turn inspired
the continent-wide Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility. Both declarations have been instrumental in sparking debates on the importance of academic freedom and autonomy of the university as a site of critical thinking.
Academic freedom on the continent and elsewhere has been under severe strain over the past decade as states are becoming increasingly repressive and intolerant.
Neoliberal chickens are coming home to roost. Various policy measures like privatisation, marketisation and the commodification of social
services have resulted in enormous social inequality and massive unemployment among the youth, the so-called Gen Z. This has led to youth protests and demonstrations, which states, bereft of any credible solutions, have responded to with ever more repression.
Use of force is becoming the new normal,which we, Tanzanians, had the misfortune of witnessing in October last year (2025). The official estimate by the Commission of Enquiry was
that some 518 people were killed,
many by gun shots—it is a gross
underestimation. So far no one has
been held criminally or politically
accountable for this killing and
mayhem.
Society has been deeply
traumatised. It lives in fear as the
security apparatus continues its relentless campaign of arrests, detentions and abductions, with no signs of relenting.
As I was writing this piece, a newspaper report announced that some thirty members and leaders of the CHADEMA party, including four university students, have been charged with terrorism. The particulars of the offence, it seems, are not very different from those of the Kaijage case (Mwananchi, 25 July 2026).
As I said, there is a cut-and-paste
template used in many of these
cases. Meanwhile, the chairman of
CHADEMA, Tundu Lissu, remains in
prison on a charge of treason. His
trial seems to go nowhere except
to keep him under lock and key indefinitely.
The African intellectual community is at a crossroads. The incessant repression of our people under near-fascist and authoritarian
regimes in many of our countries
calls for a major continent-wide
debate on our social responsibility. The choice before us is clear:
we either accept being silenced
and go under, or we continue beating the drums of resistance
References:
- Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF), 21 July 2026,
- ‘Call for the Immediate Releaseof Detained University Lecturersand the Protection of Academic Freedom in Tanzania’,
- Facebook. Facebook/61567221721200/posts/academic-freedom-under-attack-in-tanzaniathree-university-lecturers-detained-for/122214218492574057/Mwananchi, 25 July 2026.
- Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Trade Union (THTU), n.d.,
- ‘Uhuru wa Taaluma Vyuo VikuuTanzania: Uchambuzi wa Mfumo wa Kisheria na Athari za Ukamataji wa WanaTaaluma’ [AcademicFreedom in Universities: Analysis of the legal regime and the impact of arrests of academics] Kuwanda, J. 2026,
- ‘High Court Orders Release of UDOM Lecturer Held 13 Days Without Bail’, The Chanzo, 22 July 2026. https://thechanzo.com/2026/07/22/hi...se-of-udomlecturer-held-13-days-without-bail/
Source :
Terrorising Academic Freedom in Tanzania | CODESRIA Bulletin
N.B
Issa Shivji, A Life of Radical Commitment
CODESRIA
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=97ytFfcA5Qo
Issa G. Shivji
Professor Emeritus
University of Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
