Tanzania's jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu was set to begin a hunger strike on Monday, 26 October. His party says the protest is meant to force prison authorities to obey a court order allowing him to meet his lawyers in private.

Rugemeleza Nshala, legal adviser to the Chadema party, announced the protest at a news conference over the weekend.

“Starting Monday 26th October 2026, Lissu is commencing a hunger strike,” Nshala said, according to AFP and AP.

Nshala said Lissu, who depends on medication, was also prepared to stop taking it. He said he had warned the 58-year-old about the health risks. Prison authorities, police and the government had not publicly commented on the planned strike when the reports were published.

Court order “defied”

At the centre of the protest is a ruling made by the High Court on 16 October. According to Chadema, the court found that Lissu's constitutional right to consult his defence counsel privately had been violated. The ruling said detainees should be able to speak with their lawyers out of earshot, with prison officers allowed to watch only from a distance.

Chadema says those conditions have not been put in place at Ukonga Prison, where Lissu is held. Party Secretary General John Mnyika said the prison administration “openly defies judicial orders.” He added that Lissu had raised concerns about his personal safety and asked whether food supplied by officials who knowingly break the law could be trusted, AFP reported.

Treason verdict on 6 November

Lissu has been in detention since his arrest in April 2025. He was charged with treason after campaigning under the slogan “no reforms, no election,” which called for a boycott of the 2025 general election unless electoral rules changed. Treason carries a possible death sentence in Tanzania. The verdict is expected on 6 November.

Lissu argues that calling for a boycott is not treason. The opposition and international rights groups say the case is politically motivated.

Lissu is one of Tanzania's best-known politicians. He survived an assassination attempt in 2017, when he was shot several times, and returned to Tanzania in 2023 after years in exile in Belgium.

Wider crackdown

His case is part of a broader clampdown on dissent that followed last year's disputed election. Chadema was barred from taking part, and President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 98 per cent of the vote. The vote was followed by some of the biggest protests in Tanzania's history. Opposition groups and rights activists accuse security forces of killing thousands of people. A government-initiated inquiry put the death toll at 518.

Last week another senior Chadema figure, national council member and former youth wing leader John Pambalu, was charged with treason, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors allege he sought to disrupt the 2025 election through protests aimed at intimidating the government. He is the second senior party official to face the charge after Lissu.

Kenya watches closely

The crackdown has repeatedly spilled across the border into Kenya. Rights groups including Amnesty International Kenya raised the alarm on Sunday after another Chadema activist was reportedly seized by armed men in Kamulu, Machakos County. Kenyan activists have previously been detained and deported while trying to attend Lissu's court hearings in Dar es Salaam.

All eyes now turn to 6 November. A conviction would remove Tanzania's most prominent opposition voice from public life. An acquittal would mark a major setback for the prosecution.

Photos: AP; Likumbage/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)