It has now emerged that Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s recent threat against Tanzanians who had planned major protests on December 9, worked as she wished as countless citizens are said to have fled major cities such as Dar Es Salaam.
Nairobi News has learnt that countless Tanzanians travelled to rural areas, rather their villages to escape the aftermath of the planned protests in major cities in the country.
This was made public by singer Diamond Platinumz’s sister, Esma Platinumz who came out to blast Tanzanians who had fled the city for their villages in fear of the December 9, protests.
In a post sighted by Nairobi News on Esma’s page on the afternoon of December 9, the lady asked people who had fled Dar Es Salaam to stop blasting her phones with calls, wanting to know the current situation in the city.
According to Esma, those who boycotted the protest and fled to their villages should have remained in the city if they really wanted to know about the happenings.
“Mliokimbia Dar punguzeni kupiga simu, sisi siyo maripota wenu. Mungetaka Ivyo mungebaki mjini,” she wrote.
Her sentiments were echoed by countless Tanzanians who thronged the comments section of her post to call out the cowardice people who fled the city.
Nairobi News understands there has been calm in Tanzania despite earlier threats that citizens would take to the streets in a major protest to express their dissatisfaction with the results of the recently held General Election and Suluhu’s government.
Reports from the country indicate that police and soldiers were deployed in force in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on Tuesday, December 9, to try to prevent protests called for by activists to denounce the violent suppression of demonstrations around elections in October.
The government had earlier warned that any protests on Tuesday, the anniversary of mainland Tanzania’s independence from Britain in 1961, would amount to a coup attempt and urged people to stay at home.
Presidential and parliamentary elections on October 29 triggered the worst political violence in Tanzania’s post-independence history.
The U.N. estimated that hundreds were killed.
The Tanzanian police and army officers were seen patrolling major streets in Dar es Salaam and checking the identification of anyone seeking to move around, residents told Reuters.
According to some residents, the situation appeared calm as of late Tuesday morning, although one resident and some activists on social media claimed small protests had begun in some parts of the city.
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