Tundu Lissu, the fearless and defiant Tanzanian opposition leader, is once again at the center of the country’s political storm ahead of the October 2025 General Election.

At 57, Lissu was recently elected chairman of Chadema, Tanzania’s main opposition party. Soon after, he was charged with treason, a capital offense that carries the death penalty if convicted.

The charge stems from remarks he made threatening to mobilise the public to disrupt the upcoming elections unless electoral reforms were implemented.

Lissu also faces three additional charges: accusing President Samia Suluhu of directing authorities to lock Chadema out of the 2024 municipal elections, alleging police helped the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) rig the polls, and claiming judicial bias in rulings that favored CCM.

Though often in the headlines, less is known about the long and turbulent road that shaped his fiery political activism.

Lissu has never shied away from confronting power. 

A fierce critic of CCM, the party that has ruled Tanzania since independence, he began advocating for democracy in 1995 during the country’s first multi-party elections.

In 2010, he won the Singida East parliamentary seat under the Chadema banner, gaining prominence for his sharp legal mind and his fight against human rights abuses.

His maiden term in Parliament was marked by relentless anti-corruption campaigns and efforts to challenge executive overreach. Lissu joined forces with other MPs pushing for reforms to restrain presidential power misuse and power imbalance in the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

That pressure forced then-President Jakaya Kikwete to launch a constitutional review process, which was to culminate in a national referendum. But the reforms stalled as Tanzania headed into the 2015 elections, ushering in President John Magufuli, the late. 

Lissu retained his parliamentary seat, but Magufuli’s crackdown on dissent and partial ban on political rallies stifled his voice. He would pay a steep price for his continued defiance.

Assassination attempt and exile

In September 2017, unknown assailants shot Lissu 16 times in the parliamentary residential area in Dodoma. He was rushed to Dodoma General Hospital, then airlifted to Nairobi’s Aga Khan Hospital for emergency care. Later, he was flown to Belgium for specialised treatment and rehabilitation.

In July 2020, he made a dramatic return to Tanzania to run for president. His campaign was met with frequent arrests and intimidation. He lost the race to Magufuli, who won 84 percent of the vote—results the opposition claimed was rigged.

Immediately after the election, Lissu raised claims of receiving death threats and was arrested but sought refuge with foreign diplomats to fly back to Belgium.

He later announced his return in 2023.

Activist roots

Lissu’s activism began in the 1990s while studying law at the University of Dar es Salaam. 

He later earned a master’s degree in law from the United Kingdom, focusing on human rights and environmental law.

From 1999 to 2009, he worked with the Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team (LEAT), advocating for marginalized rural communities. He also worked with the Washington, D.C.–based World Resources Institute (WRI) on environmental justice from 1999 to 2002.

He went on to serve as president of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) and as chief legal officer for Chadema, roles that cemented his reputation as a leading legal mind and a dogged advocate for democracy.

Born in 1968 in Mahambe, a small village in Tanzania’s central Singida region, Lissu has risen to become one of the most formidable voices in Tanzanian politics.

Now, with his party behind him and an election on the horizon, he is once again being viewed by the ruling elite as a threat—one that is not going away quietly.