The United States has imposed financial penalties on Tanzania’s top police official and blocked his ability to travel to America, accusing him of participating in human rights abuses by law enforcement.
The penalties were revealed Thursday in the aftermath of Tanzania’s October general election, where President Samia Suluhu Hassan secured a complete term with 97% of votes following a campaign marked by suppression of political opposition. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously stated in December that America was reassessing its relationship with Tanzania due to oppression and electoral violence.
Rubio explained that the penalty designation targeting police Senior Assistant Commissioner Faustine Jackson Mafwele was founded on reliable evidence of his participation in rights abuses.
“One year ago, members of the (Tanzanian police) detained, tortured, and sexually assaulted Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire and Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, who were in Dar es Salaam to observe the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu,” he said in the statement.
The activists from Uganda and Kenya were taken into custody and held in Tanzania last May. They claimed Mafwele subjected them to torture during their imprisonment before they were left stranded near the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
An investigative panel established by Hassan to examine post-election violence determined that 518 individuals lost their lives and thousands suffered injuries. Opposition groups maintain the death toll was significantly higher during the first major violent demonstrations in the East African country in many years.
The panel’s findings, published in April, called for additional scrutiny of police behavior during the demonstrations, when reports indicated unarmed citizens were shot inside their residences. Online connectivity in the nation was also interrupted for multiple days following the election, and footage of the shootings circulated on social platforms after internet service returned, despite police warnings against sharing such videos online.
