Episode #4. Kenya’s press coverage of Tanzania’s shift into state violence through the headlines of The Standard newspaper (29 October-10 November 2025)
Marie-Aude FOUÉRÉ & Nicodemus MINDE, “Episode # 4. Kenya’s press coverage of Tanzania’s shift into state violence through the headlines of The Standard newspaper (29 October-10 November 2025)” Mambo! no. 109, 2026
For eight consecutive days, from Election Day (Wednesday 29 October 2025) until two days after the official inauguration ceremony of Tanzania’s newly elected president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, the front pages of the Kenyan weekly The Standard followed the daily descent into state violence took place during this decisive period of voting and early post-voting linked to the last Tanzanian elections in 2025. The front pages recounted, day by day, the descent into brutal violence against the protests that began to erupt in Tanzania’s major cities on the afternoon of Election Day. Step by step, The Standard strives to report on the protests and the actions taken to suppress them, even as the Internet, social media, and international phone calls were cut off (Minde, 2025).
In Kenya, The Standard is one of the most widely read newspapers, along with The Daily Nation. It is also “one of the boldest,” known for giving “the Kenyan government sleepless nights” (Ogongo-Ongong’a & White, 2008, p. 172). Most Kenyan journalists “take very seriously their ‘watch dog’ role, keeping an eye on all the activities of the government”, and feel that their social and civic responsibility is “to expose what is happening behind the scene” (Ibid., p. 168). Against a backdrop of authoritarian reinforcement in Kenya under President Ruto’s rule, and barely a year after the state cracked down on protests by Kenyan Gen-Z and Millennial youth (whose demands mostly focused on economic injustices), the Kenyan media scrutinized the electoral situation in Tanzania with a very close and similarly critical eye.
This coverage by the Kenyan press is all the more invaluable as in Tanzania the media are heavily controlled and self-censorship, as a precautionary measure, is the norm (Grösswiler, 1997; Mwainyekule, 2025). The ‘2016 Media Services Act’ criminalises defamation and gives the government the power to suspend a newspaper, which more often than not happens when a high-rank politician of the ruling party (CCM, Chama Cha Mapinduzi), if not fifty-year-old hegemony of the CCM government, are criticized (Matumaini, 2011; Rioba 2008; Powell 2017). Examples abound of suspended newspapers and of the arrest and harassment, and even disappearance and murder, of journalists over at least the last 15 years. As recently highlighted by Reporters without borders (2021), in Tanzania “journalists should be ‘guided by patriotism towards the nation’ and the ruling regime would not tolerate journalists who try to ‘tarnish the country’s image’.”
The front pages of The Standard covering the repressive turn of the last Tanzanian election cycle are all the more interesting as they have been widely shared in the media and on social networks (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, X, etc.) by Kenyan human rights organizations due to the highly critical nature of their headlines and the striking visuals they use. They thus circulated in Tanzania, fuelling mobilization against the increased authoritarian rule exercised by the state-party since Samia Suluhu Hassan came to power following the death in March 2021 of President John Magufuli, while she was Vice President. The success of The Standard’s headlines is also due, more broadly, to a culture of print media in East Africa and vivid reading habits that fuel intense debates on political life, which emerged during colonization and grew stronger after independence (Hunter, 2008; Frederiksen, 2011). The press is all the more accessible today as each newspaper has its own website and digital editions are available online. This makes it possible for interested audiences to share and circulate content more widely via the social media.
Newspaper headlines impact how readers understand stories, acting as a lens that influences their perception before reading the full article—a concept known as media framing. Typically, headlines point out issues, assign blame, and make moral judgments using visuals and language. Media uses various frames, such as the episodic frame, which focuses on specific, dramatic, or personal cases to often underscore individual responsibility rather than systemic factors (Lyengar, 1991; Boukes, 2022).
The aim of this close reading of The Standard’s front pages is to provide a day-by-day account of how repressive events in Tanzania were presented and framed, drawing on a broader perspective of this election year, the unprecedented protests that accompanied it since the country’s independence, and the extremely repressive response by the ruling regime. As we shall see, it is essential to include in our selection a last cover of The Standard, published on November 10, that is, five days after the week-long coverage of the Tanzanian elections and early post-election period, and while the newspaper had embarked on reporting on the case of two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who had been arrested and tortured in Ugandan prisons. This November 10 front page frames the repressive events in Tanzania within the broader context of the ongoing authoritarian crackdown affecting East Africa, particularly Tanzania’s two neighbours, Uganda and Kenya, in what is termed as thematic framing (Iyengar, 1991).
Below is the complete list of dates and headlines of the Standard’s front pages selected and discussed in this close-reading exercise. The original covers, as well as the transcribed headlines and lead paragraphs, are reproduced and presented one after one, together with our insightful comments.
1. Wednesday 29 October. “Samia vs Suluhu”
2. Thursday 30 October. “Defying Suluhu”
3. Friday 31 October. “Darkness in Dar”
4. Saturday 1 November. “Suluhu goes mute”
5. Sunday 2 November. “Africa’s sham polls”
6. Monday 3 November. “Tanzania massacre”
7. Tuesday 4 November. “A bloody crown”
8. Wednesday 5 November. “Suluhu’s vendetta”
9. Monday 10 November. “Trinity of terror”
1. Wednesday 29 October. “Samia vs Suluhu”

No Voice. Opposition members have been edged out of Tanzania’s vote, turning it into a one-horse race. The democratic ideals Mwalimu Julius Nyerere once championed now seem buried under a tightening grip of autocratic control. As Tanzanians head to the polls today, the air across Arusha, Dar es Salaam, and Moshi is thick with uneasy calm—a nation voting under the shadow of fear, silence, and inevitability.
The title of this front page, “Samia vs Suluhu,” evokes the idea of a two-faced Tanzanian president, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Samia is her first name, which resonates with familiarity and closeness. She is also “Mama Samia,” as she chose to be affectionately called when, in 2021, as Vice President, she succeeded John Magufuli and publicly highlighted her feminine qualities: affection, clemency, gentleness… (Munisi & Skerdal, 2025). Suluhu is her middle name, used less often but carries symbolic weight because it means ‘compromise’ or ‘solution’ in Swahili. Since her elevation to the presidency in 2021, Kenyan media have often referred to her as Suluhu, a sign of the Swahili heritage shared by the two nations. The choice to feature her on the cover photo dressed in her military uniform (given that in Tanzania, the president is also the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces) refers to the woman of war, strategist and heartless. It also symbolizes the authoritarian grip that Tanzania has taken. The lead paragraph reminds us that, on the eve of the election, the dice are loaded, as Samia Suluhu Hassan’s main opponents (Tundu Lissu in particular) have been prevented from standing in the election through various machinations. This lead paragraph ends with a description of the tense atmosphere on the eve of Election Day, conveying the prevailing mixture of fear and disillusionment. “One-horse race” and “inevitability”, which conclude the lead, echo each other: since Samia Suluhu Hassan is the only candidate, it is obvious that she will, unsurprisingly, be the winner of the presidential election. The adjective “autocratic” appears on this first front page to describe the strengthening of the ruling regime’s control over society since Samia Suluhu Hassan has taken office. The reference to Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president and father of the nation, is a classic of Tanzania’s grand national narrative (Fouéré, 2015), but Nyerere is also a widely admired figure in Kenya. It makes it possible for The Standard to refer to the democratic ideals that fuelled East African independence and to assert that authoritarianism, beyond being a fundamental violation of human rights, is a betrayal of these founding ideals.
2. Thursday 30 October. “Defying Suluhu”

People’s Power. Tanzania is on edge as violent protests erupt across major cities with hundreds of angry youth defying police to denounce what they call a sham election. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is coasting to victory after sidelining opposition leaders and tightening her grip on power. Roads are burning, the internet is throttled, and public transport has ground to a halt in an unprecedented show of defiance.
“People’s power” is the slogan of CHADEMA (Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo, Party for Democracy and Development), Tanzania’s main opposition party with a strong nationwide popular base (Paget, 2019). Tundu Lissu, a radical and uncompromising leader (Minde, 2024), has been the chairman since January 2025, but he was arrested in April of the same year and has been on trial for treason and publishing false information.[1] As on the previous day, the lead paragraph soberly refers to this, as well as to the arrest of other opponents. It again points to the acceleration of control by the regime in power since Samia Suluhu Hassan’s became president in 2021. In this regard, the front-page headline once again uses the first name Suluhu rather than Samia: Samia is no more, only her dark side, her Mr. Hyde, remains. The description of the situation on the ground reflects the rapid shift that has taken place: we move from the suspense of the previous day to being “on edge.” Indeed, from the afternoon of Election Day, large numbers of young people took to the streets of Tanzania’s main cities to denounce the fraudulent elections, protest against increasing authoritarianism, and call for the departure of the CCM (Chama cha Mapinduzi, or Revolution Party), the ruling party that has dominated national politics since independence (Makulilo, 2008; Minde, 2021). The front page, which gives a broad overview of the situation (damage and arson, transport paralysis, Internet blackout), concludes with the central idea of a “show of defiance” to political power, and to the president in particular, led by rebellious youth, which echoes the headline, “Defying Suluhu.” For the Standard, these young people seem to represent the Tanzanian people as a whole (People’s Power) and/or possibly to be CHADEMA supporters, or more widely, opposition supporters. The cover image shows them peaceful but controlled by heavily armed police officers and with the help of their imposing 4×4 vehicles.
3. Friday 31 October. “Darkness in Dar”

Defiance. Tanzania has exploded into its most violent unrest in decades as furious citizens pour into the streets to reject what they call a stolen election. President Samia Suluhu’s whereabouts remain (sic) unknown amid a nationwide lockdown, internet blackout and mounting deaths. With borders on edge and the army warning police against shooting protesters, the world watches as a nation once praised its calm descends into chaos.
This front page picks up on the idea highlighted the day before of a reckless youth challenging the ruling power and contesting the recent elections. We learn that, two days after the vote and the beginning of repression, the president-elect seems to have vanished. Her face, enlarged on the cover, shows her looking nonchalant and uninterested. The lead paragraph recalls the situation on the ground, similar to the previous day (as illustrated by two photos in the foreground of the cover), as well as the nighttime curfew. It also points out that the violence used to repress the protests has been deadly and is spreading to the country’s northern border with Kenya. It adds a new element: the division within the security forces between, on the one hand, the police, who are said to be leading the crackdown, and the army, on the other, which is seeking to calm the situation. The headline, “Dar in darkness,” can be read literally (as reflected in the cover image, which shows the city at night, lit only by a burning building), but also metaphorically, referring to the fierce repression underway. The lead emphasizes how much the bloody repression has stunned observers; it also highlights the exceptional nature of this repressive episode, very unusual in a country proud of its pervasive atmosphere of “peace and tranquillity” (amani na utulivu, in Swahili) and where, since independence, the state-party has exercised a muted and paternalistic authoritarianism rather than a massively violent and deadly control of society (Maingraud-Martinaud & Fouéré, 2015).
4. Saturday 1 November. “Suluhu goes mute”

Anarchy. President Samia Suluhu remains silent amid mounting bloodshed. Conflicting reports suggests up to 700 Tanzanians may have been killed as protests over the disputed election spread from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza and Arusha. With (sic) communication lines remain cut fear and fury has gripped the nation with the official results awaited any time now. Regional leaders remain conspicuously mute as the world watches Tanzania descend into chaos.
The front page, as it has since October 29, again refers to the president-elect as Suluhu, which has become the name of her dark side. A day has passed, but the victorious candidate (along with other political leaders) is still nowhere to be found, while “anarchy” reigns, a term that echoes the word “chaos” used the day before and repeated again at the end of the lead. The regime is seeking to obstruct the flow of information on the current situation (communications remain cut off) as the death toll rises. The cover image, which shows an aggressive police officer grabbing a civilian with great violence, is all the more striking as the two protagonists seem to be staring each other down. The front page cites the figure of 700 deaths but emphasizes its uncertainty. Another new element in this lead concerns the election results: three days have passed, the ballots are being counted, and the country is waiting for the results—knowing, as the October 29 front page indicated, that Samia Suluhu Hassan’s victory is assured. The last sentence conveys the international community’s shock and helplessness in the face of the violence that has been unleashed.
5. Sunday 2 November. “Africa’s sham polls”

Democracy on trial. Tanzania’s presidential election has delivered a staggering 98 per cent victory for President Samia Suluhu Hassan—a figure so implausible it borders on comedy. With opposition leaders jailed, voter turnout looking exaggerated and the nation plunged into an internet blackout, what unfolded was more of a coronation. To demonstrate ‘efficiency’, officials counted and tallied 33 million votes in two days. Yet the question now is what next for Suluhu. She may have secured power, but legitimacy has slipped through her fingers. Restoring faith at home and credibility abroad will demand far more than choreographed declarations of victory.
The election results were announced the day before this Standard’s front page, and were as astonishing as they were ridiculous, according to the newspaper: the president was elected with 98% of the vote. The turnout rate of 87% is considered equally absurd. The number of ballots (33 million) and the very short time available to count them by hand (bearing in mind that in Tanzania, paper ballots are still used and placed in plastic ballot boxes) are highlighted to reinforce the absurdity of the results. This is why the lead paragraph speaks of a “coronation” and not an election (Collord, 2025), making Samia Suluhu Hassan a monarch who has simply renewed her power, rather than a democratically elected candidate, i.e., a representative of the people’s choice. The lead reminds readers that information about the situation on the ground remains obstructed by the regime and that the opposition is prevented from expressing itself. The death toll rises to 800. But the front-page changes tone: it condemns the elections in its own name (in the previous leads, it merely indicated that the protesting youth condemned them). It also notes that, in a situation where the new president is not legitimate, since she could not objectively have been elected, she faces the challenge of building her legitimacy both in Tanzania and internationally. This is a daunting task that cannot be limited to window dressing, insists The Standard with a touch of sarcasm.
6. Monday 3 November. “Tanzania massacre”

Unbridled power. If Mwalimu Julius Nyerere were to return to the nation he built on the ideals of African unity, he would be horrified. As Tanzania’s first female president fought to secure her own mandate, blood flowed across the land. Cut off from the world during and after polling, Tanzanians endured what rights groups now describe as a bloodbath that was hidden behind official blackout but laid bare through reports shared with their Kenyan counterparts.
This front-page headline repeats some of the elements already reported in the days before about the ongoing brutal repression, but the choice of the term “massacre” in the headline, which echoes “bloodbath” used by human rights activists to describe the situation, suggests that the scale of the violence and the number of victims are so high that they are unacceptable and can no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents or mere intimidation. The cover image shows gruelling black-and-white photographs of mutilated bodies. The figure of the father of the nation, Julius Nyerere, is once again invoked to describe the moral betrayal that is taking place, referring not simply to “democratic ideals,” as in the first front page of this Standard series on October 29, but more broadly to those of “African unity “—a notion that, in this context, seems to refer to the internal unity that every nation should cultivate. The lead paragraph is interesting because it suggests an effective network of communication and solidarity among activists, with Tanzanian organizations sending their Kenyan counterparts information they obtain on the ground so they can disseminate it more widely. The accusation is gaining strength that the regime in power deliberately blocked the Internet in order to kill with impunity.
7. Tuesday 4 November. “A bloody crown”

Dictator’s Day. Apart from Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema, whose own rise from a jail cell under Edgar Lungu mirrors Tanzania’s Tundu Lissu, most of the leaders who flocked to Dodoma for President Samia Suluhu’s swearing-in carried the same tarnish. Among them was Kenya’s Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, hardened by last year’s Gen Z protests that left scores dead. Together they stood, a fraternity of power honed in silencing dissent, shielding their regimes from scrutiny and securing victory through the shadows of disputed elections.
Samia Suluhu Hassan’s inauguration ceremony as President of Tanzania took place the day before this front page. The cover image shows her taking the oath of office, with a fire in the background and, once again, harrowing black-and-white photographs showing the effects of violence on the victims. It was a hasty inauguration, barely two days after the election results were announced, during which the president appeared and spoke in public for the first time since the crackdown began (while there was a possible risk of a coup, which The Standard does not mention, however).[2] The headline, “A bloody crown,” brings together the idea already put forward of a royal coronation, contrary to the principles of democracy enshrined in the Tanzanian Constitution, and the current deadly repressive crackdown in violation of human rights and moral standards. This is also why the said monarch is cast as a “dictator.” The lead paragraph reports that only heads of state or deputy heads of state who are just as authoritarian as Samia Suluhu Hassan and have blood on their hands as well (“tarnish”) attended the ceremony (apart from the Zambian leader). This is an opportunity for The Standard to strike a blow against Kenyan Vice President Kithure Kindiki by recalling the deadly repression of Kenyan youth protesters of the Gen Z just one year earlier. It is also an opportunity to make a decisive statement about the existence of an agreement between the leaders of the region’s authoritarian countries to repress the opposition (both partisan and popular) and undermine democracy in order to remain in power at all costs.
8. Wednesday 5 November. “Suluhu’s vendetta”

Revenge. Tanzania has unleashed a ruthless crackdown on foreigners innocently accused of stocking post-election violence, with police and soldiers raiding lodgings, tightening borders and detaining East Africans without cause. The directive, issued from police headquarters late Monday, has sent shockwaves through the hospitality sector and triggered fear among Kenyans living in the country.
What is “Suluhu” seeking “revenge” for? For the first time in a week, we are learning that the crackdown is heavily affecting foreigners, particularly Kenyans residing in Tanzania. This witch hunt must be understood in reference to the new president’s inauguration speech, in which she claimed that those responsible for the riots were primarily foreign nationals, while Tanzanians, loyal to their nation, would have been incapable of such protests.[3] Samia Suluhu Hassan seeks to maintain the illusion of her domestic legitimacy through the use of the usual national rhetoric about peace (amani), tranquillity (utulivu), and patriotism (utanzania). The security forces now appear united to conduct the repression, and the internal divisions suggested by The Standard on its front page of October 31 no longer seem to apply since the inauguration and/or when it comes to repressing non-Tanzanians. The photograph of Samia Suluhu Hassan in her military uniform, the same one used for the October 29 edition, appears on the cover: the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces appears to have regained control of the situation.
9. Monday 10 November. “Trinity of terror”

Repression rising. When Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni admitted that two Kenyans had been tortured while in his country’s custody, he unwittingly fanned the flames of repression spreading across East Africa. Once seen as the region’s elder statesman, Museveni now speaks as the world still reels from the bloodshed that accompanied Tanzania’s October 29 election that handed President Suluhu total victory and a new reputation for strong-arm rule. In Kenya, the soil has barely settled over the graves of slain youth, while others remain missing. East Africa is fast beginning to resemble the 1930s Europe of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Ion Antonescu.
This last cover of The Standard included in our selection comes out five days after the week-long coverage of the Tanzanian repression. In the meantime, the newspaper took up the situation of two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who were arrested and tortured in Ugandan prisons, but which President Yoweri Museveni had been denying for several days. This November 10 front page provides broader context for the repressive events in Tanzania, linking them to the ongoing authoritarian crackdown across East Africa, particularly in Uganda and Kenya. To convey this idea, the cover juxtaposes the head-and-shoulders portraits of Samia Suluhu Hassan, Yoweri Museveni, and William Ruto, all wearing their Commander-in-Chief military uniforms. The lead paragraph recalls the violent repression in Tanzania and mentions an issue that will gain importance in the days to come and which has persisted since, namely the absence of bodies and the quest of families to find their dead. The introduction ends with a comparison with the authoritarian regimes of 1930s Europe, likening today’s Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian heads of state to the most terrible names of moral infamy that history has remembered.
| This series of Mambo! focuses on the 2025 election year in Tanzania. It offers an original format for a close reading of politically-related empirical objects linked to this eventful election year, marked by a shift toward massive state violence. In each episode, the selected object is reproduced in its original form and translated where necessary, carefully contextualized and closely annotated or commented with the aim of providing keys to understanding its production, meaning and significance. These objects constitute relevant sources or documents for analysing the openly brutal authoritarian turn taken by the Tanzanian regime during this electoral sequence at the end of 2025. |
References
Boukes, M. (2022). Episodic and thematic framing effects on the attribution of responsibility: The effects of personalized and contextualized news on perceptions of individual and political responsibility for causing the economic crisis. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(2), 374–395.
Collord, M. (2025, November 4). After the coronation. Africa is a Country. https://africasacountry.com/2025/11/after-the-coronation
Fouéré, M.-A. 2015. ‘Julius Nyerere’: The Man, the Word, and the Order of Discourse. In M.-A. Fouéré, Remembering Nyerere in Tanzania: History, Memory, Legacy (p.3–32). Mkuki na Nyota/Africae. https://books.openedition.org/africae/703
Iyengar, S. (1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. University of Chicago Press.
Maingraud-Martinaud, C. & Fouéré, M.-A. (2015). Une hégémonie compétitive contre vents et marée: Les élections générales de 2015 en Tanzanie. Politique africaine 140(4), 145-163. https://doi.org/10.3917/polaf.140.0145
Makulilo, A. (2008). Tanzania: A de facto one party state? VDM Verlag.
Minde, N. (2025, November 5). Denied fair elections, Tanzanians make their mark through protests. ISS Today. https://issafrica.org/iss-today/denied-fair-elections-tanzanians-make-their-mark-through-protests.
Minde, N. (2021). The Endurance of One-Party Dominance: The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party and the Challenge of Democratizing the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union. PhD Diss., United States International University-Africa.
Mwainyekule, L. (2025, September 27). Tanzania’s social media clampdown and the elections — what’s at risk. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/tanzanias-social-media-clampdown-and-the-elections-whats-at-risk-265215
Paget, D. (2019). The Authoritarian Origins of Well-organized Opposition Parties: The Rise of Chadema in Tanzania. African Affairs, 118(473): 692-711. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10079040/3/Paget_The%20authoritarian%20origins%20of%20well-organized%20opposition%20parties.%20The%20rise%20of%20Chadema%20in%20Tanzania_AAM.pdf
Notes
[1] For more on opposition figure Tundu Lissu, see episode 1 of this series.
[2] For more details, see episodes 2 and 3 of this series, which focus on Samia Suluhu Hassan.
[3] See the analysis of her inauguration speech in episode 3 of this series, notably the section of the foreignization of dissent.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie-Aude Fouéré, Nicodemus Minde (24 mars 2026). Episode #4. Kenya’s press coverage of Tanzania’s shift into state violence through the headlines of The Standard newspaper (29 October-10 November 2025). Mambo ! Consulté le 12 juin 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/15xnh
