Speculations deepen about Tanzanian Presidents absence

• Speculations about the president’s whereabouts deepened since he was last seen on 24 February at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam
• He was conspicuously absent at the virtual heads of state summit of East African Community regional bloc on February 27.

Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, appears several times on national Television and also makes regular public appearances. His unusual absence from this usual routine since last fortnight has triggered rumours. Speculation about the president’s whereabouts deepened since he was last seen on 24 February at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam. He was conspicuously absent at the virtual heads of state summit of East African Community regional bloc on February 27. He was represented at the virtual summit by Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The opposition leader Tundu Lissu claims that the President is critically ill and has been admitted to a hospital in Kenya. According to some unconfirmed reports, the 61-year-old president suffered a cardiac arrest and was flown to a hospital in Nairobi for urgent treatment. Another version is that he is critically ill after contracting coronavirus. The President had repeatedly denied the threat of COVID 19 claiming lives in Tanzania and advised people to pray and resort to traditional medicines to fight the virus. The country has not published any statistics on Covid cases for the last ten months. He dismissed the WHO advice to use face masks and did not impose a lockdown in his country Tanzania’s government has not issued any statement about the President’s health and whereabouts.