Tanzania: What Vice President Nchimbi’s Exit Reveals About President Hassan’s Rule

Tanzania’s Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbi has resigned from office and announced his retirement from politics, saying he had become convinced that President Samia Suluhu Hassan wanted a different deputy. Nchimbi announced on Tuesday, 25 August, saying he had written to Hassan to inform her of his decision to step down from the vice presidency and withdraw from public life altogether. His resignation will take effect on September 4th.

Nchimbi explained that he had made a promise to Hassan in August 2025 that he would step aside if she ever wanted a different vice president. He said he was now certain “beyond doubt” that she wished for a change in her deputy.

The resignation comes just days after authorities suspended the publishing licence of the government-critical newspaper ‘MwanaHALISI’ for six months. The paper had reported that Nchimbi was resisting pressure to resign and suggested tension between him and Hassan. Officials justified the suspension by citing breaches of accuracy, balance, and verification standards. Because the suspension closely followed Nchimbi’s announcement, questions about whether the two events are connected and about the state of press freedom under the government have risen. Tanzania currently sits 117th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom rankings.

Hassan now faces the task of naming a new vice president at a politically delicate moment, adding fresh uncertainty to a political situation already unsettled by last year’s contested election. Nchimbi’s abrupt exit is the latest episode in what has become a defining feature of Hassan’s presidency: the steady narrowing of political space in a country once regarded as one of East Africa’s more stable democracies.

Hassan took office in 2021 following the sudden death of President John Magufuli, and was initially celebrated for reversing some of his harshest policies, lifting bans on opposition rallies and reopening media outlets that had been shuttered under his rule. That reformist reputation has since collapsed. Rights groups and opposition figures now argue that her administration has returned to, and in some respects exceeded, the authoritarian tactics of her predecessor.

The clearest illustration came during last October’s general election. Hassan’s most serious challengers were removed from the race before voters ever cast a ballot. Tundu Lissu, chairman of the main opposition party Chadema, was arrested in April 2025 and charged with treason, a charge carrying a possible death sentence, after leading a campaign demanding electoral reforms under the banner “No Reforms, No Election.” Chadema itself was subsequently barred from the election entirely after missing a deadline to sign an official code of conduct, a decision the party said was engineered to sideline it. A Tanzanian court later banned live broadcasting of Lissu’s trial, citing witness protection, a move Lissu himself denounced as an effort to conduct the proceedings “in darkness.” The second-largest opposition party’s candidate, Luhaga Mpina, was also disqualified on technical grounds, leaving Hassan to face only minor-party opponents.

With no credible competition, Hassan claimed a landslide victory, officially winning 98% of the vote, a margin international observers said reflected a process that was neither free nor fair. Election day itself was marked by violent unrest in Dar es Salaam and other cities, an internet blackout, closed schools and government offices, and a heavy security and military presence. Hundreds of people were reported to have died in the violence that followed.

The crackdown has extended well beyond the ballot box. Government critics have faced abduction and intimidation, including former ambassador Humphrey Polepole, who vanished from his Dar es Salaam home shortly before the election after publicly resigning his post over what he called the government’s disrespect for justice and the rule of law. Opposition figures have alleged that over 200 people have gone missing under Hassan’s watch, and a senior Chadema official, Mohamed Ali Kabo, was killed in circumstances that prompted calls for a judicial inquiry which the government rebuffed by declaring related protests illegal.

Taken together, the disqualification of rival candidates, the prosecution of opposition leaders on capital charges, the suppression of independent media, and the disappearance of critics show a government consolidating power by dismantling the checks against it. Nchimbi’s resignation, following so closely on the suspension of a newspaper that reported on internal tensions within Hassan’s government, suggests that even figures inside the ruling establishment are not immune to the same pressures that have silenced dissent outside it.