Four Tanzanian opposition politicians have fled to Kenya, citing death threats and harassment by government agents for enquiring about President John Magufuli's health.
The politicians, all members of opposition party CHADEMA and former councillors, on Wednesday painted the civil space in the country in bleak colours, saying the government easily jails dissidents.
"For example, even inquiring about the health of Magufuli lands someone in jail," they claimed.
Any news about Covid-19 is censored and no media house is allowed to cover or give commentary on the whereabouts of the president despite the speculations being rife in the country, they said.
Others allied to the opposition have been killed while most of them are arrested and detained on trumped-up charges, they added.
All the four; Edward Ndege Aduogo, Andrew Mng’osi Nyakriga, Ngai Kagose Mawinda and Godwin Lazaro Kitori hail from Mara region and claim to have been rigged out during the October 2020 General Election in the country. They are all wanted by the police in the neighbouring country.
Two of them; Kitori and Ndege have been registered by the Secretary for Refugee Affairs as asylum seekers. The rest are to find out their fate on March 24.
Fleeing by the four follows similar action by former opposition MP Gobless Lema who crossed into Kenya in November last year with his family citing death threats.
President Magufuli has not been seen in public for over 20 days, raising speculation that he may be indisposed.
Speaking to the press at the offices of George Wajakoya who is their lawyer, the politicians said they sneaked through the porous Kenya-Tanzanian border to seek asylum, fearing for their lives.
They claim they were sent threatening messages by the CCM officials, provincial administration officials and police, making them run away from their country.
Kitori, who served as councillor for Mkoma ward since 2010, said he had been arrested and jailed for one year before for dissenting from government policies in the local assembly.
He said during the election campaigns last year, youths allied to the ruling party alongside the police attacked him and his supporters during his campaign meeting, killing one person.
The police would then turn the heat on him, accusing of him of holding an illegal meeting that resulted in the death.
“They now want to arrest me and charge me with murder, claiming that I am responsible for the death of my supporter yet it is the police who shot him,” Kitori said.
The former councillor said should he have waited for the police to lay their hands on him, he was sure of what awaited him: jailing without a fair court trial, hence his decision to run to Kenya.
“The Magufuli regime has turned to combing the villages looking for grassroots leaders who are voicing dissent and inquiring about the health of the president,” he claimed.
“All party leaders in Mara region, as long as they are allied to the opposition are targeted. People are being arrested, even boda boda riders for asking about the health of the president, having not seen him in the media for three weeks now,” he added.
The former civil leaders claimed that the CCM regime had grown authoritarian, muzzling the freedom of the press and targeting any entity that portrays it in bad light.
They said they left their families in Tanzania and do not know how they are currently.
Wajakoya appealed to the government of Kenya to grant the four asylum but not take them to Daadab or Kakuma refugee camps for fear of their safety.
He said the Kenyan government was obligated to ensure the safety of the four and to see that they were not abducted back into the neighbouring country.
"The Kenyan government is obligated under international law to ensure safety of the asylum seekers. The international human rights laws override the countries' diplomatic relation issues," he added.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara