🚨 Could Tanzania's Court of Appeal Ruling Break the CCM–TISS Bond? A Strategic Intelligence Brief

Ujasusi Blog’s East Africa Monitoring Team | 15 June 2025 | 0320 BST
📍 A Crack in the Authoritarian Wall?
On 14 June 2025, the Tanzanian Court of Appeal delivered a landmark judgment invalidating four sections of the Miscellaneous Laws Amendment Act (No. 3) of 2020, which had severely restricted public interest litigation (PIL). Though judicial in appearance, the ruling has significant political, legal, and intelligence implications. At its core lies a fundamental question:
Could this legal breakthrough disrupt the decades-old alliance between Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and its all-powerful spy agency, the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS)?
This intelligence brief unpacks that possibility by examining the ruling’s content, legal significance, structural implications for TISS, and its potential to shift Tanzania’s political-intelligence landscape.