FREE SPEECH &DEMOCRACY FOR TANZANIA
My name is Mange Kimambi, I am a 37 years old Tanzanian living in the United States of America. I am a single mother of three young children. I moved to the US about five years ago to join my ex-husband. I have recently become instrumental to Tanzanians in their fight for freedom of speech and democracy and this has led the government of Tanzania to issue an arrest warrant on me and include my name among those who are wanted by the state.
I am a crucial source of information for Tanzanians. My platform is most probably the only place where Tanzanians can obtain real, uncensored information. All my work is done through the Instagram social media platform. Tanzania has an estimated population of about 50 million, an estimated 15% of the populations has access to social media. It is approximated that there are around 3-5 million Tanzanians who use Instagram. Out of those, 1.1 million follow me under @mangekimambi_ . As the Tanzanian government has been cracking down on the local media, including television, radio, newspapers, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp messages, as well as personal communications such as text messaging, I have become a critical source of information and also a source of hope for many Tanzanians who now live in fear of expressing themselves freely.
I regard myself as an activist. This journey kicked off around 2015 when I owned one of the most popular lifestyle/gossip blogs in Tanzania. Blogging always came naturally to me. Initially I blogged about non consequential matters such as beautiful shoes, bags and clothes. I also blogged about my life and that of my friends, our travels and social life. Sometimes there was positive and negative drama attached to my blog, but it was largely harmless and a great pastime. Looking back I realize that although my blog was part of the salt in life to some, it was a learning curve for me.
Unfortunately I soon found out that I could not write about the usual happenings that I had; the events of everyday life in Tanzania. This is because the Tanzanian government passed what has come to be known as the CyberCrime Act of 2015. As a Tanzanian blogger this law affected me directly. I decided to pay closer attention, explore and understand the above named act in its entirety. To my shock and disappointment I quickly came to the realization that the main objective of the new law was to rob the people of Tanzania their freedom of expression and the freedom to criticize their leaders on any social media platform.
I could no longer blog freely. I soon came to the realization that people hadn’t understood the cyber crime law. So I started to educate Tanzanians about the cyber crime law. The majority of the people had been misinformed. They believed that it was there to protect them from online bullying when in fact the law was there to protect politicians from ANY KIND of online criticism. Something within me clicked, I now needed to be vocal about matters that were more profound, more meaningful and totally different from what had always been expected from me.
It is at this point that I naturally moved from popular blogging to activism. It was a new territory for me but I educated myself and used my platform to educate people. I believe I can now say that, that was the beginning of my new journey. It was at that point that I started caring about the important things in life. I realized the importance of fair and free elections, the importance of real democracy especially in a developing nation. I had taken a huge step away from thinking about material things to worrying about making a real change not just within my community but in my country.
The current Tanzanian president, John Magufuli came to power after the 2015 elections. I actually ran the most successful online election campaign for him. The first 6 months of his presidency were the most hopeful months for all in Tanzania. He was tough on corruption, he made significant changes. I was so proud to have been on this team from day 1. He made all Tanzanians proud.
Then suddenly, on the 7th month of his presidency he made a complete turnaround. All our hopes and aspirations of how he would be were crashed. He started enforcing policies that were dictatorial. For instance, Tanzanians had almost forgotten the cybercrime law which had been passed a few months prior to his elections, but suddenly the police started arresting citizens who were critical of the president. People were either imprisoned for seven months or would need to pay 7 million shillings ($3,100) in fines for having criticized him on Facebook. Then he started jailing opposition leaders for criticizing him. He started making threats to local media houses.
Although I had been his number one fan, and campaigned for him in the 2015 elections, I soon realized the grave error that had been made. It
dawned on me that I might have helped a dictator come to power. The moment of truth for me was when he banned the parliament sessions from live broadcast so people would not be aware of what was being discussed. Tanzania has aired live parliament sessions since its independence. Before we had the current live TV technology, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere allowed live parliament sessions through the radio. But unfortunately, since president Magufuli’s ban, Tanzanians can no longer watch their parliament sessions live or uncensored by the government. The parliament has its own studios, they only release certain censored clips and only allow a few hours of the questions and answers sessions to be aired live. The rest of parliament sessions are in the dark.
The situation has been getting worse. Opposition leaders are jailed. Some have disappeared for merely questioning the authenticity of the president’s PhD. The media is being silenced. The citizens are abducted and tortured when they criticize the government. As previously mentioned, because of my speaking out and because I air the grievances of the people of Tanzania through my Instagram page, the government of Tanzania has issued a warrant on me and have put me on their most wanted list. This arrest warrant is at all of the country’s border entry points. The letter was leaked to me by a source in the government. LINK TO LETTER
The only reason I am still breathing today is because I live in America. The government has tried to shut down my page, it has tried to issue threats and now there is credible information they are trying to harm me.
For me, activism is a calling. I am now fighting for democracy and freedom of speech for my country. I use about 15 hours daily, including weekends to go through the information that I receive, authenticate it and then post it. I do this because I understand the impact of my work. I love what I am doing, it helps me sleep well at night knowing that I am making a huge difference in the lives of those who matter most to me, my compatriots. The source of my information is my fellow Tanzanians in all walks of life. They send me information through email and WhatsApp messaging.
I receive over 3,000 emails and messages on a daily basis. I have to sort out the information, verify the sources, and respond to the messages. At most I am able to read and sort through 1,000 –1,500 messages daily. I sometimes find myself with a back log of over 6,000 messages. It is humanly impossible for me to keep doing this alone. I wish I could be able to hire at least 1-2 people to help me. Because of the confidentiality of this information, those who could support me would need to be scrutinized. Unfortunately I cannot afford to pay anyone and this cause needs to be financed.
I do all this while caring for my young family. To be honest, sometimes I feel as if I am going insane. I am typing this at the park as I watch my young boys play. There is no time off for me, except when I sleep. However, this struggle must go on. I have decided to take this to the next level and make this my sole purpose. I understand the importance of this task. I hold a Master’s degree in International Business and I can carry on with the support of those who value freedom of speech and democracy. The only way that we can continue doing this is through public donations.
I ask for donations because this work has made it impossible for me to have any time left to hold a a job.
The funds will be used to help hire another person or 2 to assist me in this work. The funds will also be used to assist me in providing for myself and my young sons. The funds will also be used to install an adequate home security system and 24/7 security for myself as I do not feel safe anymore.
Thank you for your support and for valuing freedom of speech and democracy.
I am a crucial source of information for Tanzanians. My platform is most probably the only place where Tanzanians can obtain real, uncensored information. All my work is done through the Instagram social media platform. Tanzania has an estimated population of about 50 million, an estimated 15% of the populations has access to social media. It is approximated that there are around 3-5 million Tanzanians who use Instagram. Out of those, 1.1 million follow me under @mangekimambi_ . As the Tanzanian government has been cracking down on the local media, including television, radio, newspapers, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp messages, as well as personal communications such as text messaging, I have become a critical source of information and also a source of hope for many Tanzanians who now live in fear of expressing themselves freely.
I regard myself as an activist. This journey kicked off around 2015 when I owned one of the most popular lifestyle/gossip blogs in Tanzania. Blogging always came naturally to me. Initially I blogged about non consequential matters such as beautiful shoes, bags and clothes. I also blogged about my life and that of my friends, our travels and social life. Sometimes there was positive and negative drama attached to my blog, but it was largely harmless and a great pastime. Looking back I realize that although my blog was part of the salt in life to some, it was a learning curve for me.
Unfortunately I soon found out that I could not write about the usual happenings that I had; the events of everyday life in Tanzania. This is because the Tanzanian government passed what has come to be known as the CyberCrime Act of 2015. As a Tanzanian blogger this law affected me directly. I decided to pay closer attention, explore and understand the above named act in its entirety. To my shock and disappointment I quickly came to the realization that the main objective of the new law was to rob the people of Tanzania their freedom of expression and the freedom to criticize their leaders on any social media platform.
I could no longer blog freely. I soon came to the realization that people hadn’t understood the cyber crime law. So I started to educate Tanzanians about the cyber crime law. The majority of the people had been misinformed. They believed that it was there to protect them from online bullying when in fact the law was there to protect politicians from ANY KIND of online criticism. Something within me clicked, I now needed to be vocal about matters that were more profound, more meaningful and totally different from what had always been expected from me.
It is at this point that I naturally moved from popular blogging to activism. It was a new territory for me but I educated myself and used my platform to educate people. I believe I can now say that, that was the beginning of my new journey. It was at that point that I started caring about the important things in life. I realized the importance of fair and free elections, the importance of real democracy especially in a developing nation. I had taken a huge step away from thinking about material things to worrying about making a real change not just within my community but in my country.
The current Tanzanian president, John Magufuli came to power after the 2015 elections. I actually ran the most successful online election campaign for him. The first 6 months of his presidency were the most hopeful months for all in Tanzania. He was tough on corruption, he made significant changes. I was so proud to have been on this team from day 1. He made all Tanzanians proud.
Then suddenly, on the 7th month of his presidency he made a complete turnaround. All our hopes and aspirations of how he would be were crashed. He started enforcing policies that were dictatorial. For instance, Tanzanians had almost forgotten the cybercrime law which had been passed a few months prior to his elections, but suddenly the police started arresting citizens who were critical of the president. People were either imprisoned for seven months or would need to pay 7 million shillings ($3,100) in fines for having criticized him on Facebook. Then he started jailing opposition leaders for criticizing him. He started making threats to local media houses.
Although I had been his number one fan, and campaigned for him in the 2015 elections, I soon realized the grave error that had been made. It
dawned on me that I might have helped a dictator come to power. The moment of truth for me was when he banned the parliament sessions from live broadcast so people would not be aware of what was being discussed. Tanzania has aired live parliament sessions since its independence. Before we had the current live TV technology, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere allowed live parliament sessions through the radio. But unfortunately, since president Magufuli’s ban, Tanzanians can no longer watch their parliament sessions live or uncensored by the government. The parliament has its own studios, they only release certain censored clips and only allow a few hours of the questions and answers sessions to be aired live. The rest of parliament sessions are in the dark.
The situation has been getting worse. Opposition leaders are jailed. Some have disappeared for merely questioning the authenticity of the president’s PhD. The media is being silenced. The citizens are abducted and tortured when they criticize the government. As previously mentioned, because of my speaking out and because I air the grievances of the people of Tanzania through my Instagram page, the government of Tanzania has issued a warrant on me and have put me on their most wanted list. This arrest warrant is at all of the country’s border entry points. The letter was leaked to me by a source in the government. LINK TO LETTER
The only reason I am still breathing today is because I live in America. The government has tried to shut down my page, it has tried to issue threats and now there is credible information they are trying to harm me.
For me, activism is a calling. I am now fighting for democracy and freedom of speech for my country. I use about 15 hours daily, including weekends to go through the information that I receive, authenticate it and then post it. I do this because I understand the impact of my work. I love what I am doing, it helps me sleep well at night knowing that I am making a huge difference in the lives of those who matter most to me, my compatriots. The source of my information is my fellow Tanzanians in all walks of life. They send me information through email and WhatsApp messaging.
I receive over 3,000 emails and messages on a daily basis. I have to sort out the information, verify the sources, and respond to the messages. At most I am able to read and sort through 1,000 –1,500 messages daily. I sometimes find myself with a back log of over 6,000 messages. It is humanly impossible for me to keep doing this alone. I wish I could be able to hire at least 1-2 people to help me. Because of the confidentiality of this information, those who could support me would need to be scrutinized. Unfortunately I cannot afford to pay anyone and this cause needs to be financed.
I do all this while caring for my young family. To be honest, sometimes I feel as if I am going insane. I am typing this at the park as I watch my young boys play. There is no time off for me, except when I sleep. However, this struggle must go on. I have decided to take this to the next level and make this my sole purpose. I understand the importance of this task. I hold a Master’s degree in International Business and I can carry on with the support of those who value freedom of speech and democracy. The only way that we can continue doing this is through public donations.
I ask for donations because this work has made it impossible for me to have any time left to hold a a job.
The funds will be used to help hire another person or 2 to assist me in this work. The funds will also be used to assist me in providing for myself and my young sons. The funds will also be used to install an adequate home security system and 24/7 security for myself as I do not feel safe anymore.
Thank you for your support and for valuing freedom of speech and democracy.
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