Chadema deputy John Heche detained in Dodoma: unwell reports surfaced Thursday, as Kenyan politician Martha Karua raised alarms over the opposition leader’s deteriorating health in custody at Mtumba Police Station, where he’s allegedly denied urgent medical care amid a brutal post-election crackdown that’s claimed hundreds of lives and jailed thousands across the nation.
Karua, a fiery Narc Kenya stalwart and Azimio ally, broke the news via her X account late Wednesday, her words slicing through Tanzania’s digital blackout like a smuggled dispatch. “Reliable reports that @HecheJohn deputy @ChademaTZ2 The party leader is detained by @tanpol at Mtumba police station in Dodoma and is unwell but being denied medical attention,” she posted, tagging global watchdogs in a plea that echoed from Nairobi’s opposition circles to Dar’s shuttered newsrooms.
Heche, 44 and Chadema’s vice chairperson for the central zone, was snatched during Tuesday’s Arusha rallies, where protesters torched effigies over President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s disputed 97 per cent win.
Now, three days in, party insiders whisper he’s collapsed twice from dehydration and untreated hypertension, his pleas for a doctor met with shrugs and shackles.
Mtumba Station, a squat concrete bunker on Dodoma’s dusty outskirts, has morphed into a symbol of the regime’s iron fist. Chadema spokespeople, piping updates from exile via encrypted apps, claim Heche has fasted since arrest, surviving on sips from a shared bucket in a cell crammed with 40 souls.
“He’s a father, a fighter for fair votes, not a criminal,” blasted party secretary John Mnyika in a voice note smuggled to Kenyan media.
“Dodoma’s heat is killer; without meds, he’s fading. This is torture, plain.”
Rights groups like Amnesty International amplified the cry Thursday, demanding UN observers and tagging the African Union in frantic cables.
“Denying care in custody is cruel and unusual,” their rapid response read, citing Heche’s history of border detentions, including a May 2025 airport holdup that drew Martha Karua’s own solidarity back then.
The backdrop? Tanzania’s streets are still smouldering from the October 29 polls, where Chadema’s Tundu Lissu rots in solitary on sedition raps, and youth mobs clash with baton-happy cops.
Over 816 dead by underground counts, airports dark, radios mute, and a 9 PM blackout that turns cities into ink blots. Heche’s grab fits the purge: opposition brass rounded up pre-dawn, vans vanishing into the night.
In Arusha, where he rallied last, graffiti scars walls with “Free Heche” in chalk, washed away by morning hoses but reborn in whispers.