⬆️ CONTEXT | Hichilema’s Dodoma — Diplomacy Meets Pressure, Principles Meet Reality
President Hakainde Hichilema stood in Dodoma yesterday and delivered a measured speech. He congratulated President Samia Suluhu Hassan during an inauguration shadowed by curfews, internet cuts, armed patrols and a disputed ninety-seven percent tally. He honoured statecraft. He also stepped into a storm.
He urged Tanzania’s leader to “lead all Tanzanians, including those who did not vote” for her. A diplomatic sentence, but a pointed one. It acknowledged victory and questioned legitimacy in the same breath. It praised order and reminded the region that order without consent is brittle.
Hichilema leaned on his own story, recalling fifteen years in opposition without calling people to the streets. “Peace comes first,” he said. It was a warning to those stirring unrest in Tanzania. It was also an indirect rebuke to voices at home who romanticise lawlessness as a shortcut to power.
But that message lands in a complicated place. Zambia’s opposition claim political arrests, disrupted rallies, and a cyber law that bites. When he says “I never asked citizens to riot,” critics answer: but under your Presidency opponents cannot protest without a permit anyway. The tension is real. His record on civil liberties faces scrutiny even as he calls others to democratic restraint.
Hichilema reached further, linking Tanzania’s unrest to Mozambique’s instability and the long memory of southern Africa’s liberation wars. He reminded the region that peace is not a slogan, it is a survival tool. “Once you lose peace, you may never regain it properly,” he said. The reference to Mozambique’s conflict-scarred north was deliberate. Insecurity does not stay in its lane in this part of the world.
However, his presence in Dodoma carries cost. A large section of Zambians see Tanzania’s election as compromised and expected a principled distance. Online backlash reflects a public uneasy about standing beside a leader emerging from violence and media blackouts. Diplomacy rarely satisfies emotion.
Hichilema’s defence is strategic, not sentimental. Tanzania is maize, fuel routes, trade, port access, a copper corridor and TAZARA steel linked to Zambia’s spine. Protest hashtags do not keep fuel flowing through TAZAMA. Regional peace is not an academic phrase when economies share borders and pipelines. Still, voters do not eat geopolitics, they feel posture, and they measure moral consistency.
The moment carries contradictions. A regional leader preaching restraint while facing criticism for shrinking civic space. A democracy defending a neighbour accused of muffling dissent. A President balancing principle and necessity in a room where applause and suspicion coexist.
This visit will not be forgotten at home or abroad. It was not a victory lap. It was a stress test. Tanzania faces a crisis of legitimacy. Zambia faces a test of democratic stamina. Africa faces a youth wave unwilling to inherit quiet politics.
Hichilema did not arrive with answers. He arrived with a warning: stability is expensive, and once lost, recovery is not guaranteed. The question now is whether his leadership at home can match the standards he urged abroad.
© The People’s Brief | Our Context dissects speeches, scrutinises actions and interrogates contradictions so readers see the full landscape, not the podium picture.
A measured and mature approach to a delicate matter. Brains over Brawn.
Not pa maka.
Praise Zealots of all shades are in over drive, trying to justify the unjustifiable. Trying to make sense out of nonsense on
President Hakainde Hichilema ‘s attendance of Dictator/Child Murderer Suluhu Hassan ‘s Inauguration –
The Tanzanian Dictator, a product of a Flawed Electoral Process where the 98% Winner stood against herself with opponents either in Jail, Disqualified, abducted and Missing – Where multitudes were slaughtered and bodies litered on the streets of Tanzania.
The ghastly images of bodies have only now started surfacing.
And those who are hailing Hakainde’s immoral act and supporting it as Diplomacy Par Excellence will now start seeing the full extent of the Murderous actions of the Tanzanian Murderer.
And may the Independent Media show the full extent of Dictator Suluhu Hassan ‘s Atrocities so that Zambians can see what Hakainde Hichilema went to legitimize.
Let it be known that the Red Carpet and Podium where he stood was laden with the blood of the Innocents executed on the streets of Tanzania.
It’s like Dr Kenneth Kaunda attending the inauguration Ceremony of the Rhodesian Dictator Ian Smith because Zambia needed the Sea route through Rhodesia, while Black citizens were being murdered.
What kind of thinking is this?
The decision by Hakainde Hichilema to attend the Inauguration Ceremony of the Tanzanian Dictator Suluhu Hassan has nothing to do about preserving the Economic Interests of Zambia. Whoever is peddling such is a hopeless liar.. Kenya and Uganda Which infact have a Connected Economies through ECA don’t have economic Interests with Tanzania? There Presidents chose not to attend!
The Hakainde Hichilema Stunt at that Blood laden Dodoma Military Podium is all about him and him alone. That’s not my Zambia he was presenting there.
It’s about His Self Preservation.
The model Hakainde Hichilema has been pursuing is no different from that of Dictator Suluhu Hassan.
It’s the same play book of Imprisonment of Opposition Political Leaders, suppression of fundamental Freedoms of Citizens, Weaponisation of the Judiciary, obliteration of political parties, Stealthy Electoral Processes and Constitutional Amendments, Disqualification of political Opponents from Elections.
What you see in Tanzania is the mirror image of what is obtaining in Zambia.
This is the Tanzanian Model which gave Dictator Suluhu Hassan the 98% votes in the sham she calls Elections. This is the model we have enroute to the 2026 Presidential and General Elections.
Am not surprised that the Zambian President can attend the Inauguration Ceremony of the Tanzanian Dictator and Murderer.
They are following the same model made from the same mould.
In Tanzania, Hakainde sees an opportunity to sow fear in the Citizens of Zambia, if his dictatorial approach is questioned at some time.
The last thing Hakainde wants is a people uprising succeeding in Tanzania, a revolt against the same model he is using to suppress the Zambians.
That’s why Hakainde Hichilema went to Tanzania to legitimize a brutal Murderer ‘s win..and to talk about peace and God.
It’s an investment for his own flawed win in 2026.. which he is determined to get.
Only Dictators invest in Dictators.
Hakainde’s Dodoma Military Podium Stunt is not about Diplomacy. It’s purely an act of Self Preservation, an immoral and desperate scheme to put a fetter on the people of Tanzania ‘s resolve for Democracy in their Country… which he fears can spill over to Zambia..
And Vainly using God’s name for Ulterior motives.
Which God ‘s time was he talking about?
God’s time with killings and opposition Political Party Leaders in Jail?
Which God can allow Such Thinking?
The time for Fraudsters in African Politics is coming to an end.
The Tanzanian Dictator , the Murderer Suluhu Hassan may have survived today, but she won’t tomorrow. And so it is for all African Dictators, masquerading as Democrats, when the Rot they are doing is abominable, they will be thrown in the Dustbin of political Rejects very soon.
The Tanzanian Model won’t save them.
I humbly submit.
Kokoliko!!
Watch your feathers, they could be on fire!!!