Melkisedeki Kitunzi Kaijage teaches African politics as an assistant lecturer at the University of Dodoma. He first came under police attention after receiving a summons on July 3, delivered through his head of department, instructing him to report to a police station.
He complied on July 8. According to the University of Dodoma Academic Staff Association, known as UDOMASA, he was accompanied to the station by two union leaders and his lawyer. By that evening, he had been accused of encouraging participation in the July 7 demonstrations, widely referred to in Tanzania as Saba Saba, which the government had already banned.
He was held at Chang’ombe Police Station in Dar es Salaam without bail for close to two weeks, even though UDOMASA argued the alleged offence was bailable. That detention is what pushed the union to file an application at the Dodoma High Court on July 12, setting the Tanzania lecturer terrorism case on its current path.
The case was heard on July 17 and adjourned to July 21, when Justice Joachim Tiganga finally ruled in Kaijage’s favour. Advocate Prosper Malangalila, who led the defence team, told reporters outside court that the judge had granted bail and that his client would be freed that afternoon.
That release never happened. Before the paperwork could be completed, prosecutors substituted the original sedition-related charge with one of terrorism, a non-bailable offence under Tanzanian law. Kaijage was transferred from police custody to Isanga Prison instead of walking free, turning the matter into a full-blown Tanzania lecturer terrorism case overnight.
UDOMASA chairman Dr Gerald Shija confirmed the switch, describing it as a fresh blow to a case the union had already flagged as a threat to academic freedom.
This is not Kaijage’s first brush with the authorities over the protest movement. He was previously detained in December 2025, after Dodoma’s Regional Police Commander, Gallus Hyera, accused him of using a classroom lecture to encourage students to join a separate round of banned demonstrations known as D9. He was released on bail at the time, and the current Tanzania lecturer terrorism case marks his second arrest linked to activism around planned protests.
His case is not isolated. Twenty-three people appeared before the Mwanza Resident Magistrate’s Court on July 23 on terrorism charges connected to the same Saba Saba protests, accused of taking part in what prosecutors called a terrorism meeting. Six young people linked to opposition-aligned groups in Mbeya were charged with terrorism or economic sabotage offences the same week, a pattern rights groups say mirrors the Tanzania lecturer terrorism case closely.
The Legal and Human Rights Centre highlighted this pattern a day before the Mwanza charges were filed, warning that individuals across the country were being held in prolonged detention even when the offences they ultimately faced were bailable. A bailable charge is pursued until a court grants relief, then a heavier, non-bailable charge is introduced instead, exactly as happened in the Tanzania lecturer terrorism case.
Opposition party CHADEMA has been vocal about the trend. Secretary General John Mnyika criticised what he described as a growing habit of linking civic activism to terrorism accusations, arguing that party members and other detainees were still being held at police stations well beyond their initial hearings.
UDOMASA and the Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Trade Union have both raised broader concerns about academic freedom, pointing out that Kaijage’s case follows earlier arrests of two lecturers from St John’s University of Tanzania over comments linked to the same wave of planned demonstrations.
Kaijage’s next court appearance is scheduled for August 5, when it will become clearer whether the terrorism charge holds or is revised again under legal pressure. The Tanzania lecturer terrorism case now sits within a wider crackdown that has followed the government’s banned July 7 protests and the continuing detention of opposition figures, including Tundu Lissu, who faces a separate treason case.
