Sammy Awami

Pres­i­dent Has­san’s de­ci­sion to end a six-year ban on po­lit­i­cal gath­er­ings has been laud­ed by the op­po­si­tion.

Tan­za­nia is one of the last two African coun­tries to lift the ban that keeps preg­nant school­girls from school.

Many Tan­za­ni­ans ac­knowl­edge recog­ni­tion of Gur­nah’s work but oth­ers ques­tion whether they can claim au­thor as their own.

The late pres­i­dent has left be­hind a na­tion di­vid­ed in mem­o­ry of a leader who was si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly revered and loathed.

Magu­fuli has left a na­tion di­vid­ed in its mem­o­ry of him amid un­cer­tain­ty over what comes next.

Af­ter months of down­play­ing dead­ly dis­ease, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have urged peo­ple to take pre­cau­tions and wear masks.

Pres­i­dent John Magu­fuli claims, with­out ev­i­dence, that vac­cines against COVID-19 are ‘dan­ger­ous’.

Ob­servers say come­back for op­po­si­tion par­ties seems a long way off, re­lies on ref­or­ma­tion of ex­ist­ing po­lit­i­cal sys­tem.

Al­le­ga­tions of wide­spread rig­ging, vi­o­lence and in­tim­i­da­tion dur­ing polls call into ques­tion ve­rac­i­ty of re­sults.

Tan­za­nia gears up for Oc­to­ber 28 polls to elect pres­i­dents for main­land and Zanz­ibar, as well as MPs and coun­cil­lors.