Tundu Lissu

Tundu Lissu has become the face of Tanzania’s opposition after securing 51.5% of the votes and winning the Chadema party leadership in a closely contested race against longtime leader Freeman Mbowe. 

Lissu’s political journey began in the early 1990s as a law student at the University of Dar es Salaam. He later pursued a master’s degree in law in the United Kingdom. He first entered national politics in 1995, at 27, when he contested a parliamentary seat in Tanzania’s first multiparty elections. 

In 1996, he became involved in public interest environmental law, leading an investigation into human rights abuses at a World Bank-backed gold mine in northern Tanzania. He and his colleague, Rugemeleza Nshala, probed the killing of 62 small-scale miners and mass evictions, resulting in sedition charges, which were later dropped. 

Following this, Lissu worked on community land rights with the World Resources Institute, focusing on policy research. In 2010, he won the Singida East parliamentary seat under the opposition party Chadema. His legal background played a role in the constitutional review process initiated by then-President Jakaya Kikwete. Lissu became one of President Magufuli’s most vocal critics, challenging his economic policies and governance approach. 

In 2017, he was shot 16 times outside parliament in Dodoma. Following the attack, Lissu went into exile in Belgium, where he continued his political activism. In 2020, he authored Remaining in the Shadows: Parliament and Accountability in East Africa. That same year, he returned to Tanzania to contest the presidency against President Magufuli but lost. After losing the election, he once again left for Belgium. With President Samia Suluhu Hassan taking office in 2021 following Magufuli’s death, Tanzania’s political climate shifted. In 2023, Lissu returned home, marking his reintegration into active politics.