🇹🇿 Intelligence Brief | Arrest of Brenda Rupia Signals Intensifying Crackdown on CHADEMA — Is CCM Determined to Crush the Opposition Before 2025 Elections?
Ujasusi Blog’s East Africa Monitoring Team | 🗓️13 July 2025 | 🕜0515 BST
🛑 Recent Trigger Events: 12–13 July 2025
1. Arrest of Brenda Rupia
On 12 July 2025, CHADEMA’s Director of Communications and Publicity, Brenda Jonas Rupia, was arrested at the Namanga border while attempting to travel to Nairobi en route to Munich, Germany, for a democracy training programme. Immigration officers reportedly cited internal orders barring CHADEMA leaders from leaving the country and confiscated her passport. She was handed over to the Namanga OCCID, transferred to RCO Arusha, and later transported under tight security to Dar es Salaam. On 13 July, the Tanzania Police Force released an official statement confirming her arrest, citing allegations of spreading false and seditious information.
2. Blocked Departure of Leonard Joseph Magere
The same night, CHADEMA official Leonard Joseph Magere, a resource mobilisation and investment expert, was blocked from boarding a KLM flight to the UK for a resource governance training. Despite holding valid documentation, immigration authorities at Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) detained him without a formal explanation or legal process. He remains in Tanzania, incommunicado, and unable to travel.
3. Broader Context of Escalation
These back-to-back incidents follow a broader pattern of repression whereby CHADEMA leaders—such as Amani Golugwa and Godbless Lema—have been denied international travel in recent months. The party views these actions as deliberate and systemic efforts by the state to isolate CHADEMA from international democratic platforms and weaken its leadership.