Intelligence Profile of Haji Omar Kheir: Presidential Adviser During Tanzania's Ongoing Post-Election Massacre With Three Decades of Zanzibar Violence Allegations Against Him
Ujasusi Blog’s East Africa Monitoring Team | 20 October 2025 | 0445 GMT
This intelligence assessment reveals a Tanzanian political figure whose 30-year career trajectory moved from local constituency representative to presidential adviser, accompanied by persistent allegations of directing paramilitary violence. His June 2023 appointment to State House coincided with Tanzania’s democratic collapse, raising questions about the operational transfer of Zanzibar’s security methodologies to mainland governance.
Haji Omar Kheir (born 10 January 1960) served six consecutive terms representing Tumbatu constituency in Zanzibar’s House of Representatives from 1995 to 2025, held multiple ministerial portfolios including oversight of “Special Forces,” and was appointed Presidential Adviser on Political and Social Relations by President Samia Suluhu Hassan on 13 June 2023. His political ascendancy parallels systematic allegations—spanning from 2015 to 2025—of commanding security forces and paramilitary groups that conducted torture, extrajudicial killings, and electoral violence. Multiple sources, including the late opposition leader Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad and torture survivors Agather Atuhaire and Boniface Mwangi, have named him specifically as responsible for security operations resulting in deaths and abuse. Political analyst Chambi Chachage identifies Kheir’s State House appointment as a potential turning point in Tanzania’s governance, preceding the October 2025 election violence that credible sources estimate killed between 500 and 2,000 civilians.