I arrived at the Kisutu High Court at around 8:06 am on Thursday, April 24, 2025, to cover the treason case hearing of the opposition figure, Tundu Lissu. I was late leaving the office, so I had to rush there.

 At around 7:50 am, as I was passing the Salender Bridge police station, I saw the CHADEMA Deputy Chairperson (Tanzania Mainland), John Heche, at the station in a shouting match with the police. I was confused, was he coming from Kisutu or going, but the Bodaboda driver had already passed the station.

Along the way, as I was getting near Kisutu, security was heightened. A water cannon truck was stationed near the NMB Bank, and as you turn onto Bibi Titi Road, a paramilitary police armoured vehicle was stationed there. My thought at that moment was, “This is fine.”

I also expected heightened security due to the police’s rhetoric, but the day before, on April 22, 2025, I was at the Msimbazi Police station to follow up on some of our detained journalists who were covering CHADEMA’s rally. As I was waiting for processing at the police station, I overheard the excitement about the reinforcement for the day.

As I arrived at the Kisutu gate, I noticed that the security was heightened, two plainclothes officers, one female and one male, the lady dressed in a dark blue skirt-suit and the man in a dark grey suit with a red Kufi-cap, were asking questions. 

At the Kisutu gate

“Who are you?” the lady asked. I replied, “‘I’m here for news coverage.”  You can’t enter, she replied. I explained again, I’m just here for coverage. The fellow officer, the grey-suit guy, who was ordering his colleague around, interjected, “You are told there is no court today, what can’t you understand?” 

Just to get him to explain well, I asked, so Lissu’s case will not go forward today? He replied, he was calm, and I could see he had assessed what I was there for, but he was replying in a tone like he was agitated, “There is no court today, especially for that Lissu case.” One of the officers spoke from a distance, “The court is going to be held virtually.”

At that moment, a few other journalists arrived, and also some CHADEMA members; the male officer repeated the same thing as he was moving up and down. Now, we tried to argue our way around. At some point, they rhetorically asked, “You want to get in? Get them in.” But we step back.

I briefly detached from the group and stood at a white wall beside the court. Beside me, there was a journalist, I know him, and there was another person in black cap, wearing a golf shirt, with brown, black, and white stripes, whom I mistakenly didn’t pay attention to. That person (black cap guy) , who was beside me and fellow journalist casually said to me: “Now, nothing can be done; let’s listen to them.”

I had so many questions in my head, so when he talked to me, I replied with what I was thinking, ‘are they going to bring Tundu Lissu or not?’ he changed, I could sense he was not emotional; not angry, agitated, nothing; but he meant everything he said.

“Don’t play with me, you want me to make you famous?” He was speaking in a measured tone, only I, the fellow journalist beside us, could hear. I looked at his face as I was quickly moving away. He had one of those familiar faces in Tanzania, black, shaved, he is around 5’9, basically there is nothing that could make you remember him.

Impromptu press

Now, we move and stand on the road, between Kisutu and the building beside it. A group of uniformed officers were in front of Kisutu, about three of them, and were receiving information from the grey-suit guy. Other journalists alongside several CHADEMA officials, were pleading with the uniformed senior police officer, uniform tagged EM. PETER.

By then, we were still trying to plead with them, on the rationality of making the court open, and other beautiful words. We were naïve, no one had fully grasped what the day had in store. The situation changed when the grey-suit guy ordered the arrest of one of the people who was there, we rushed to move away.

So, all of us now took the Magore road. We are with a few senior CHADEMA officials, including Lucas Ngoto, the party’s chairperson for the Serengeti Zone and Central Committee member. So, we convinced them to give a press briefing as the day was progressing. We went and gathered a few meters near the Court, beside the Tanzania National Archives. So, at around 8:23 am, we started filming and concluded at around 8:28 am.

After filming, we parted ways. CHADEMA members and leaders were going back to try to get into the court. We were trying to look for a space to edit and send material for a brief minute. I decided to break away from the group and asked Viva Tower’s security guard if I could use their private back entrance; they agreed. So, I head back to the court again, using Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road. At this point, I had to remove the press vest, just to learn how the situation is, once again.

So, from around 8:40 am, I was walking around NMB, using Ali Hassan Mwinyi, and crossed the road to Bibi Titi Mohamed Road. Surprisingly, now, there were many onlookers, from Viva Tower to the court,  people were standing beside the road looking at the court, the scene had completely changed.

There was a Traffic Police officer at the Magore Road, which is beside the court wall, directing cars. There were two uniformed police officers with dogs; there were about 15 police officers in front of the Court gate, and there was a police vehicle with some CHADEMA members, I couldn’t see them, from the position I was in, so I had to walk further, luckily for now there were many onlookers, at Raha Tower, so I tried to see what was happening from there, that was already 8:43 am.

Noel attacked by police dogs

As I was walking, I could see one of the CHADEMA members, Noel Joackim, pacing toward Magore road, this was the same side where two police officers with dogs were standing.

It was 8:44 am, in the police vehicle, Toyota Hilux, which was directly at the court gate, had five police officers in the truck bed of the vehicle, together with Lucas Ngoto, Twaha Mwaipaya, and John Pambalu, who were shouting, “They have killed, they have killed.” At the far end, Noel was lying down, with dogs still barking.

Watch here as Noel gives a full account of the incident, which had him hospitalized. At this point, there were more journalists in the area, but far away from the court.

The assumption was that the arrested individuals were going to be taken to the police station, but it was different. Ngoto, Twaha, Pambalu, and others were taken to the Ununio bushes where they were beaten; both had their legs broken. And later in the evening, they were dumped at Pande Forest in Bagamoyo. Some fellow journalists were not so lucky and endured police beatings and were even taken to be tortured at some bushes in Dar es Salaam.

There are still many questions that remain with me. Now, the court was not closed on Monday. There was nowhere that the court or government had reported that it was stopping people from going to Kisutu; police said they would not allow unlawful assembly, but there is a formal space for people to sit inside the court, unfortunately, people were denied entry.

Most of the people who came in on Monday were trying to do what has been done for years in this country: go to the court and listen to whatever case that you are interested in. If it was important for people not to show up at the court, why didn’t the court announce that it was barring people from attending the court that day?

The fact that police in their ranks decided that it was going to arrest people, for just attending a court session and then chose to disregard the law by torturing them and dumping them in some bushes, speaks volumes about the level of impunity within our state institutions. It was a show of police brutality and lawlessness.

You can watch details of the event below: