Activists Hit Back After Tanzania's President Calls Youth "Ill-Mannered"

President Samia Suluhu Hassan

What President Samia Said
Speaking at the Tanzania–Kenya Business Summit on May 4, 2026, President Samia Suluhu Hassan revealed that one of her key discussions with Kenyan President William Ruto was how to deal with what she called "unruly youth" in the region. "These are ill-mannered youths, and we should not distinguish between Tanzanians and Kenyans," she said, adding that these young people "go around saying they are fighting for democracy wherever they go, causing chaos here and there, burning things, and disturbing their governments."

Backlash from Activists and Legal Figures

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan is facing sharp criticism across the East African community bloc for her plans to neutralize Gen Z activism. Former Chief Justice David Maraga described the alleged remarks as "abhorrent," warning that "the axis of tyranny that Presidents Suluhu and Ruto are constructing threatens to return our region to autocracy."

Maraga noted the remarks came barely a week after President Suluhu received the report of a commission of inquiry into killings during Tanzania's October 29, 2025 general election, in which more than 518 people lost their lives, primarily from gunshot wounds with not a single person held accountable.

The Broader Context: Post-Election Crackdown

Tanzania's October 2025 election was widely described as a lopsided contest with only one possible outcome the reelection of President Hassan. In the immediate wake of the vote came unprecedented protests and an equally unprecedented violent six-day crackdown, with an internet blackout ensuring only scraps of reporting could trickle out.

Amnesty International documented that amid a nationwide internet shutdown, security officials subjected individuals to beatings, denied the wounded access to healthcare, arrested some still in need of care, and collected bodies of victims from mortuaries, taking them to unknown places.

Cross-Border Targeting of Activists
In May 2025, security officials in Dar es Salaam abducted, beat, and tortured Kenyan and Ugandan activists Boniface Mwangi and Agatha Atuhaire, who had traveled to observe the trial of opposition figure Tundu Lissu. Both said the officers had sexually assaulted them.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi had earlier said activists who travelled to Tanzania would "have themselves to blame" if they exported "bad manners" to neighboring countries language that activists say mirrors and emboldens the Tanzanian government's crackdown narrative.

The "Ill-Mannered" Label Rejected
Critics argue that labeling pro-democracy youth as "ill-mannered" is an attempt to delegitimize legitimate dissent. Many have associated the unnamed youths Samia referred to with the region's Gen Z young people who form the majority of the population and are often only about less than a quarter of the age of the men and women in power across the three countries.

The remarks have intensified calls across East Africa for accountability, democratic reform, and an end to what human rights groups describe as coordinated cross-border repression of civil society.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

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