CREATING a local commission of inquiry first will enable the government to coordinate effectively with any international investigative teams that may later seek to engage with the government, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has declared.

Launching the commission whose membership was listed in a State House statement on Tuesday, she said that “before external commissions arrive, we must have our own. Let it do its work thoroughly, so that if others come later they will engage with a commission that has already begun gathering the facts and establishing the truth.”

The commission will examine the various incidents related to the breakdown of peace during and after the election period, including the conduct of political actors, security agencies and external organisations, she specified, underlining that it is expected to submit a comprehensive report with recommendations to the government.

She admitted that the government was facing mounting domestic and international pressure to ensure accountability for the violence, expressing full confidence in the team appointed to conduct the probe.

Citing their professional experience and understanding of national governance, she emphasized that the commission’s findings and recommendations will guide Tanzania toward healing and reform.

“Once the truth is established, we can take the necessary steps to move forward as a nation,” she said, as the team prepares to interview government and other agencies in investigating the unrest that erupted in the morning of October 29 polling day.

In her remarks at the Chamwino State House yesterday, the president said that the government had resolved to launch the commission to uncover the root causes of the chaos that swept through several regions.

After having contested the polls as being neither free nor fair, opposition parties were equally skeptical of the commission owing to its membership, based on retired top judiciary and police offers assisted by veteran diplomats in particular.

Monitoring teams from the East African Community (EAC), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) said polls did not meet standards of being free and fair, a viewpoint that observers are waiting to hear how it will be taken up by the commission of inquiry.

“Let the Commission of Inquiry also examine the involvement of both local and international NGOs,” the president underlined, pointing at growing official reports that external actors may have influenced the situation on the ground.

“We are told that the young people who went to the streets to demand their rights were first paid money. Where did this money come from? Who facilitated this, and for what purpose?” she asked, tasking the commission to ‘follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

Noting that the scale and intensity of the violence shocked the nation which for decades has been regarded as an island of stability in the region, she stressed that “what happened was never expected in our country, given our long history of peace, unity, and political calm.”

Tanzania must fully understand what went wrong to prevent similar occurrences in the future, she said, with human rights organisations and international observers asserting that the unrest left hundreds dead or injured after security forces went after the demonstrators challenging the legitimacy of the election. 

Major urban centres witnessed days of violent confrontations, with the police declaring a nationwide curfews and public transport halted as most roads were strewn with impediments to passage and unpredictable gunfire being heard for five days.

Observer teams and independent analysts outside the country like the Mo Ibrahim Foundation expressed shock at what happened, seeing the vote as a ‘mockery of democracy,’ as the process “was compromised long before citizens went to the polls,” with arrests of several prominent challengers, disqualifications on technical grounds as evidence of a political environment that was far from competitive.

The government’s decision to form a domestic inquiry was guided by the 2023 Commissions of Inquiry Act, which grants the Head of State the power to establish bodies tasked with investigating matters of national importance, the president intoned.