The year is ending. But the questions are not.
Tanzania closes 2025 wounded, shaken, and uncertain.
Not because of war. Not because of economic collapse. But because an election failed to convince its own people.
The election that never settled
October 29, 2025 was meant to be voting day.
Instead, it became protest day. The major opposition party did not take part. Its message was clear: “No reforms, no election.”
Eighteen other parties contested. On paper, it looked plural. On the ground, it felt empty.
By 11 a.m., only a handful of voters had cast their ballots. Yet the streets were already alive – with anger.
Gen Z moved first. Fast. Organised. Fearless.
Polling stations were disrupted. Roads were blocked. The government was caught unawares. Voting stopped in many urban constituencies.
This was not a post-election protest. It began as voting began. That fact changes everything.
Why the youth rose
The protests did not come from nowhere. They were fueled by constant abductions of opposition members, arbitrary killings of government critics, silence from authorities, and arrogance in rejecting electoral reforms.
For months, warnings were ignored. Demands were dismissed. Patience ran out. So the youth acted.
Not after results. Not after defeat. But during the vote itself.
Chaos, then numbers
Then came the silence. The Internet went dark. Media coverage shrank.
Fear spread. Yet within three days, the electoral commission announced results – 32 million votes allegedly counted, a winner declared, parliament sworn in.
All this happened while protests raged, polling disrupted, ballot boxes remained uncounted.
Even today, some boxes have never been tallied.
Still, “winners” sit in Parliament.
The speed shocked the nation. The confidence alarmed it.
Legitimacy on trial
How do you count millions of votes during chaos? How do you verify results under an Internet blackout? How do you declare finality when voting never fully happened?
These are not opposition questions. They are national questions.
I asked them on video the day the results were announced. They remain unanswered.
So does the biggest question of all: Was this election legitimate?
The cost no one can name
Lives were lost. That much is certain.
How many? No one knows.
To this day:
No official casualty figure.
No names.
No accountability.
Families mourn in silence. The state counts nothing.
A country that cannot name its dead cannot heal.
A government on the defensive
The state insists order has returned. But trust has not.
Young people feel betrayed. Citizens feel insulted. Institutions feel exposed.
Stability is being enforced. Not restored.
And there is a difference.
Where Tanzania stands now
The country stands on an uneasy ground.
A Parliament “elected” amid disruption.
A presidency declared amid doubt.
A generation radicalised by exclusion.
This is not normal politics. This is a legitimacy crisis.
The road ahead
Tanzania now faces a choice.
Ignore the questions. Or confront them.
Repress memory. Or pursue truth.
Rule by force. Or rebuild consent.
The youth will not forget. The dead will not speak.
But history will record.
End of year, beginning of reckoning
2025 will be remembered.
As the year voting lost meaning. As the year Gen Z found its voice. As the year silence stopped working.
The future depends on what happens next.
Because elections do not end when results are announced. They end when people believe them.
And this time, many do not.
