'Tanzania government has seized my passport': Twaweza director

Dar es Salaam. The Executive Director of Twaweza, Mr Aidan Eyakuze says the Tanzanian government, through its department of immigration has confiscated his passport and barred him from travelling outside the country.

Mr Eyakuze revealed this during a press conference in Dar es Salaam on Friday August 3. He said he has not been able to attend essential meetings in Kenya and Uganda after immigration officials confiscated his travel documents.

Twaweza, a civil society organization in Tanzania has been in the limelight in recent weeks following a fallout with the Commission of Science and Technology (Costech).

Read: Tanzania's Twaweza in trouble as Costech claims recent survey was uncertified

Costech wrote a letter to Twaweza in July requiring an explanation on why appropriate measures shouldn't be taken against them for publishing findings of a poll survey that had not been “authorized.”

However, Mr Eyakuze was quick to say he cannot associate Costech’s decision with the seizing of his passport.

When asked why he couldn’t associate this current predicament with Twaweza’s recent fallout with Costech, Eyakuze told this reporter to enquire from the Immigration Department.

Read: Twaweza: Magufuli approval rating plunges, but...

However, the Immigration Department's Spokesperson, Mr Ally Mtanda, told The Citizen's sister newspaper, Mwananchi, that he's not aware of the confiscation and the order to ban Mr Eyakuze from travelling outside the country.

Eyakuze told journalists that on July 5, 2018 the government confiscated his passport and when he went to apply for a temporary permit at the Immigration Department, he was denied the opportunity to do so.  

"They didn't tell me what was the reason behind confiscating my passport and why they didn't want me to travel outside the country," Mr Eyakuze said.