‘You won’t destabilise my country’: Suluhu tells Kenyan activists
Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan speaks with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured) during a meeting inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu on Monday
said foreign activists would not be allowed to “interfere” in the country's
affairs after several tried to attend the trial of opposition leader Tundu
Lissu, who is facing treason charges.
"We have started to observe a trend in
which activists from within our region are attempting to intrude and interfere
in our affairs," Hassan said in a televised speech during the launch of the
country’s new foreign policy.
“If they have been controlled in their
country, let them not come to disrupt us. Let us not give them the chance; they
have already destabilised their countries and the only remaining peaceful
nation is Tanzania.”
Suluhu urged the country’s security and defence organs “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here."
Her comments came just
hours after several Kenyan rights activists were denied entry to Tanzania and
deported to Nairobi.
PLP leader and former
Justice Minister Martha Karua and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga were among
those detained when they landed at Tanzania's Julius Nyerere International
Airport in Dar es Salaam, to observe Lissu’s case hearing
on Monday.
Lissu, the leader of Tanzania’s
main opposition party Chadema, was charged with treason over an alleged speech
calling on Tanzanians to rebel and disrupt the country’s presidential and
parliamentary elections due in October.
In April, his party
was disqualified from competing in the upcoming polls after the National
Electoral Commission said that the party had failed to sign a code of conduct
document.
Chadema accuses Suluhu’s
government of returning to the repressive policies of the recent past.
Lissu's case was
adjourned to June 2, as the prosecution said investigations were ongoing.
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