Police, Zitto arrest drama

Dar es Salaam. ACT Wazalendo leader and Kigoma Urban MP Zitto Kabwe was yesterday arrested and later released on police bail.

He was accused of committing three offenses. Mr Kabwe was arrested early Tuesday morning around 6am at his Masaki home, his wife, Ms Anna Mbwana, told The Citizen yesterday.

“Officers came to our home and ordered me to summon my husband. Then, they took him to Chang’ombe Police Station for interrogation,” she explained.

“This incident left me in shock as they did not give explanations why they were arresting him,” she said. Mr Kabwe was interrogated for four hours at the Chang’ombe Police Station before he was later transferred to the Financial Intelligence Unit (IFU) located at Kamata in Kariakoo for further interrogations.

The police accused the vocal legislator of uttering seditious words during a campaign rally at Kijichi in the city last week.

The ACT-Wazalendo leader was also accused of violating both the Cybercrime Act, 2015 and Statistics Act, 2015 his lawyer, Mr Steven Mwakibolwa, told reporters yesterday.

However, Kigoma MP was later on released on bail and instructed to report at Chang’ombe Police Station on Monday for further interrogations, confirmed Mr Mwakibolwa. He further established that his client was also instructed to report at IFU on Tuesday for similar purpose. “He is accused of uttering seditious words during an open rally held in Kijichi and violating both the Cybercrime Act and Statistics Act,” he said.

Recently, Mr Kabwe claimed that figures availed by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) about the national economic growth in the second quarter of 2017 had been cooked and called for investigations to be conducted by external bodies over the same.

Briefing reporters after his release, Mr Kabwe urged his supporters around the country to remain calm and continue with their development activities, assuring them of continuing to fight for democracy and rule of law in the country.

“I understand that the police officers received the order from the President himself to arrest me. I’m not even surprised because I knew this was going to happen and everybody knew that I was going to be arrested,’ he claimed.