When the Tiananmen massacres of June 4, 1989, were happening in China, I was in Standard Six at Kigoma Primary School. I didn’t see it on TV as others did because we didn’t have a TV at home. I read about it much later, and I have re-read materials about it in the last 10 days since the October 29 massacres in different regions of Tanzania.
Neither did I see the massacres which took place in Dar es Salaam and other regions like Mwanza and Arusha, as there was no internet. On October 30, I joined people in Kigoma demonstrating at the Kigoma Ujiji Municipal offices against the election results. I was later arrested and detained at Central Police Station.
There, some police officers came to brief me about the situation in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Mbeya. One officer told me he had lost his young brother. Still, I didn’t realise how big the problem was. I came to see the videos of the killings after the internet was allowed back. It was the October Massacres! It was our Tiananmen moment.
My heart weeps no, it bleeds as we confront the nightmare that has swallowed our nation whole since the bloody October 29 elections. The air reeks with the cries of the innocent, the ground drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters, a vicious betrayal that rips apart the very soul of Tanzania.
How dare they! The barbaric massacres unleashed by our own security forces in Mwanza, Mbeya, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, and Songwe have shattered families, razed communities, and plunged our nation into unending grief. Mothers clutch empty arms where laughter once echoed; fathers scour the shadows for stolen loved ones; our vibrant youth, brimming with dreams, now rot in unmarked graves.
READ MORE: Tanzania After October 29, 2025: Reclaiming the Island of Peace
These abominations – bullets fired into homes, kidnappings under cover of night, savage beatings of peaceful protesters – reek of the darkest tyrannies in our history, spitting on the unity and peace Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, our founding leader, fought so hard to build.
We must not avert our eyes from this agony; it is the gaping wound of a people stripped of dignity, votes, and lives. Hundreds of thousands slaughtered, their silenced voices a damning indictment of hope crushed under bootheels. Tens languish in jails across the land, including in Kigoma town, where I stood shoulder-to-shoulder in protest against the electoral theft inflicted on me on October 30, 2025.
Tanzania is forever scarred. We, all those clutching power and those crushed by it, must face this truth head-on.
Steps to be taken
The first step to redemption is admitting the horror: our people were massacred on October 29 and the bloody days after, an unprecedented atrocity! The October 2025 Massacre will not fade into oblivion like Angola’s forgotten May 1977 slaughter. No, we will etch it into history as a rallying cry against impunity.
In this furnace of anguish, we rise not with whispers but with thunderous resolve. We demand immediate steps to mend the shredded trust. The unconditional release of all ensnared in politically motivated charges, including our fearless brother Tundu Lissu and every opposition leader, activist, and citizen jailed for truth-telling. This must happen now, no delays, no excuses.
We call for an independent, impartial probe into the October 2025 Massacres, spearheaded by the United Nations or the African Union. Let truth’s blaze illuminate every savage act, every command issued, every life extinguished.
To clean these wounds, we must seize transitional justice. Truth commissions, reparations for grieving families, and ironclad accountability for the guilty from trigger-pullers to puppet-masters. Impunity dies here, smashing the cycle of abductions and terror that has gripped us.
The heads of defence and security forces must resign immediately. Their betrayal is unforgivable, turning protectors into predators, sowing terror where security should reign. It’s outrageous to even whisper of foreign mercenaries invading our soil to slaughter Tanzanians.
Such rumours alone demand the Chief of Defence Forces’ accountability. Our proud TPDF, reborn after the 1964 mutiny when Mwalimu Nyerere wept over foreign intervention, must never stoop to this treason. Addressing the nation on January 25, 1964, President Nyerere stated: “This whole week has been the week of the most grievous shame for our nation.”
The shame was Tanzania inviting the British to intervene in restoring order in Tanganyika, then. Affirmatively, October 29 and its aftermath are the most grievous shame for our nation. As a national service veteran, I burn with shame at the thought of soldiers from neighbouring countries allowed to kill Tanzanians.
Reforms
Finally, we charge forward with raw, honest national dialogues spanning divides, amplifying every voice to birth a new constitution enshrining real democracy, ironclad rights, and power in the people’s hands. A new constitution and the process of writing it would bring the country together.
READ MORE: Tragic October 29: Tanzania’s Turning Point?
Importantly, though shadows devour us, our tears must fuel the fire of change. Unite in defiant solidarity, cradle the bereaved, force the world to witness. Justice is our fire, our unbreakable chain. From this abyss, we storm forth for a Tanzania where peace surges like rivers and every soul soars free.
My solemn request to President Samia Suluhu Hassan is admission of deaths and honest condolences to the families, justice and accountability and political and security sector reforms.
As Nyerere said in 1964: “We have to restore confidence in our country and win back a reputation we had as a peaceful and mature country.”
These words from Mwalimu Nyerere are more important today than 60 years ago. The buck stops at you, Madam President!
Zitto Kabwe, the former leader of the opposition ACT-Wazalendo party, was the party’s candidate in the 2025 Kigoma Urban parliamentary election. He is available at zittokabwe@gmail.com and on X as @zittokabwe. These are the writer’s own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of The Chanzo. Do you want to publish in this space? Contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com for further inquiries.
