Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan. File | Photo credit: Kamal Narang
Seeing a hungry lion walking around in a small cage, President of Tanzania Jokingly he suggested naming the “mischievous” animal after one of the East African country’s leading opposition politicians.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was visiting an annual fair held in her hometown on the Zanzibar archipelago on Saturday when she spotted a furious cat at a booth of the National Wildlife Agency.
In a clip widely circulated online, a keeper tells him that the animal was wandering around because it hadn’t eaten yet, before adding that the big cat has not been named.
“Name it after my son Tundu Lissu,” he suggested laughingly, referring to his popular nickname “Mama Samia” and opposition politician Tundu Lissu.
On Sunday, Ms Hassan compared the “spirited and somewhat mischievous lion” to the “turbulent” Mr Lissu, who ran for president in 2020 after an assassination attempt in 2017.
“So, I suggested naming it Tundu Lissu, because it was as restless as my son Tundu Lissu.”
The 56-year-old was among the opposition leaders who were arrested recently in the southern city of Mbeya ahead of Youth Day celebrations.
But Mr Lissu, a fierce critic of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, took the president’s joke in stride.
“President Hassan was right, because I was born into a family of heroes… people who killed lions that attacked cattle,” he told local media on Sunday.
He said that in the local Bantu language, Kinyaturu, spoken by his family’s Turu tribe, such people are known as “Ahomi” or “Muhomi.”
“My grandfather Mughwai was a Muhomi. He killed a lion that attacked his cattle and killed him,” he said, adding that his father also “twice killed a lion that attacked his cattle and killed him.”
The lighthearted relationship comes just weeks after police detained top leaders of Tanzania’s opposition party.
Rights groups condemned the move, expressing concern it could signal a return to the repressive policies of the late President John Magufuli, as the country prepares for elections late next year.
Ms Hassan came to power after Magufuli’s death in 2021 and eased some restrictions on the media and the opposition.