Mass protests erupted in Tanzania, a Russian-friendly country, during the presidential and parliamentary elections.
While the official results are still pending, Tulia Ackson, the Speaker of Parliament and head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union — known for repeatedly inviting Russian parliamentarians to Geneva — is expected to keep her seat representing the ruling party.
Meanwhile, her opponent, human rights defender and opposition candidate Mpaluka Said Nyagali (Mdude), was kidnapped from his home in early May and has yet to be found.
Tulia Ackson was brought into politics by the current president, Samia Suluhu Hassan (previously under John Magufuli), who actively promoted women’s rights and sought to involve them in government bodies. The young lawyer was also supported by her compatriot, Asha-Rosa Migiro, a former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN (during Ban Ki-moon’s tenure). In return, Ackson secured Migiro a position as Secretary-General in the leadership of Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Tanzanian politicians operate in a virtually unaccountable regime: MPs, including the Speaker of Parliament, are not required to report their income or assets to voters, so their “golden toilets in marble palaces” remain hidden. When the opposition demanded that parliamentary sessions be broadcast at least on the radio, Ackson called in bailiffs, expelled opposition MPs from the chamber, and barred them from participating in budget hearings. Another scandal arose when MPs demanded a discussion on the expulsion of nearly 8,000 students from a local university due to a lecturers’ strike —Ackson declared that “this does not constitute public interest and is not urgent.”
It is no surprise that no one has a clear idea of where the Speaker of Parliament—a lawyer by education—gets the funds to distribute houses to voters before elections, pay for thousands of insurance policies, and organize festivals with tens of thousands of participants (something Ackson does not hide on social media). Officially, the funding is provided through the private fund Tulia Trust, which supposedly “helps vulnerable populations,” but the fund is not officially registered, does not publish financial reports, and does not list its founders on its website.
According to sources, the main sponsor of the fund is Mantra Tanzania Ltd., a uranium mining company that is part of Rosatom’s structure through Uranium One Group.
The license for Mantra’s operations was obtained back in 2013, when Ackson’s husband, James A. Mwainyekule, was already working in the Ministry of Energy. Currently, he heads the energy and water supply regulator, EWURA.
As for the legal founders of the fund—in 2017, the fund used the contacts of the law firm Brickhouse Law Associates, co-owned by Cheggy Clement Mziray, one of the initiators of the fund’s creation. Other founders include lawyers Edwin Kidiffu and Bahebe Daniel Elois, as well as businessman Harun Mulla Pirmohamed, who also became an MP in 2015. All these individuals have gained significant political positions or advantages.
By the way, Ackson will remain the head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union until the end of her three-year term (until 2026). This means she will continue to have the opportunity to bring Russian parliamentarians into European parliamentary structures despite sanctions.
Ackson’s opponent, Mdude (Mpaluka Nyagali), was abducted from his home at 2 a.m. in front of his wife and child. The attackers, numbering about 20, identified themselves as police officers. Neighbors were too afraid to intervene. Previously, he had been repeatedly abducted and beaten by security forces under Magufuli’s rule, but he was always later found, either in prison or in a hospital. Now, his supporters fear the worst. The candidate himself once stated on Twitter that his murder had been ordered by Ackson.
Examples of abductions are not isolated: journalist Azory Gwanda disappeared in 2017, activist Bena Saanane in 2016, and activist Deusdedit Soki in August 2024.
