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Tanzania, 11 November 2026 - Tundu Lissu’s brother, Mzee Alute Mughwai, was buried on Tuesday at Mahambe Village in Ikungi District, Singida Region, in a sombre ceremony.
It came just days after the Chairperson of Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) was jailed for four years. In the case, treason charges were dropped, but the court opted for lesser charges of incitement to violence.
On Wednesday, CHADEMA published a video of Vice Chairperson John Heche addressing the situation the party and Tanzania at large are going through. He said the burial came at a time when the party was under immense pressure.
Heche said CHADEMA is indeed the biggest party in Tanzania, dismissing the influence of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
“The family of Mzee Lissu has gone through a lot. Personally, I understand, even the pressure I get from my family because of how things are unfolding,” Heche said.
He said he could feel the pressure on Lissu’s family but lauded its members for being forthright and firm in their decision.
“May God comfort them,” he said.
He added that Tundu Lissu would have liked to attend the burial of the brother who brought him up.
“The scars state operatives have left on our Chairman cannot be quantified,” he said.
Heche stated that there is no way Mzee Alute will be exhumed so that Lissu can take part in the burial, a very painful reality. He added that in the African setting, burying a brother or a beloved relative carries great weight and meaning.
“We have seen in many instances, Africans preserve the bodies of their beloved family members just to enable relatives to participate in the burial,” he said.
He said CCM was a shell of its former self. He alleged that in Tanzania people are killed like chickens, with enforced disappearances happening every now and then, while those who dare to speak out and call out the tormentors are detained and imprisoned without any wrongdoing.
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Heche said there would be no need to study law if there were no principles and no justice served by those in authority.
“It is only in the jungle where there are no laws governing the animals, but human beings study law so that it can serve mankind,” he said.
When the High Court jailed Lissu last week, he appealed to his supporters not to worry but to attend the burial of his elder brother.
“Please go and bury Mzee Alute Mughwai,” Lissu urged his supporters on 6 November 2026.
The supporters replied that they would honour the request. Lissu has said his brother, an advocate, is the one who inspired him to pursue law.
The UK raised concerns over the four-year prison sentence. The UK minister for Africa and International Development Kirsty McNeill in a statement cited the findings of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, set out in Opinion No. 74/2025, which concluded that Lissu’s detention was arbitrary and lacked a lawful basis.
The working group also identified serious concerns over his right to a fair hearing, alongside violations of safeguards guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There has been debate on the findings of the three-judge bench led by Judge Dunstan Ndunguru, alongside judges James Karayemaha and Ferdinand Kiwonde.
Justice Ndunguru cited two primary statutory laws applied for sentencing. They are Section 319(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA). The three-judge panel invoked this procedural statute to convict Lissu of a lesser alternative offence, even though it was not listed on the original charge sheet.
The second one was Section 390 of the Penal Code. Under this section, the court found him guilty of incitement after acquitting him of treason, which had been brought under Section 39(2)(d) of the Penal Code.
At the centre of it is the issue of convicting a suspect in a charge their are not given a chance to defend themselves, after treason charges were dropped.
The UK emphasised that Tanzania, as a state party to the international covenant, had an obligation to protect the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, political participation and equality before the law.
Lissu's lawyers are finalising the appeal, which is more than 50% complete.