Tanzania as a Quasi-Intelligence State: How Ruling Party CCM and Spy Agency TISS Control Power Beyond Democracy

The Trinity of Power: How CCM's ruling party apparatus (left), Tanzania's territorial sovereignty (centre), and TISS intelligence networks (right) have merged into a single quasi-intelligence state where party, nation, and security service operate as indistinguishable elements of the same power structure. [Source: Canva]

Ujasusi Blog’s East Africa Monitoring Team | 16 September 2025 | 0120 BST

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The Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS) and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party maintain a deeply entrenched symbiotic relationship that has fundamentally shaped Tanzania's political landscape since the country transitioned to multiparty democracy in 1992. This intelligence analysis examines how TISS has evolved from a traditional security apparatus into the backbone of Tanzania's quasi-intelligence state, where intelligence operatives dominate key government positions and maintain CCM's political hegemony.