Haji Omar Kheir
Kwa vile hakukuwa na utunzaji wa kumbukumbu zozote miaka hiyo, Inakisiwa kuwa Haji Omar Kheir alizaliwa kisiwa cha Tumbatu mwaka 1960.
Allzaliwa katika umasikini uliopindukia hata katika standard za kisiwa hicho alichozaliwa.
Alimaliza masomo yake ya kidato cha tatu mwaka 1978.
Pamoja na kuwa darasa lao la mwaka 1978 lilitoa karibu nusu ya darasa kuendelea na kidato cha nne huko mjini, safari yake ya ki elimu iliishia hapo kwasababu ya uwezo wake mdogo sana darasani.
Darasani yeye maisha yake alikuwa back bencher, mwalim akiuliza swali ni wale wanao jificha chini ya meza.
Alikuwa hashiriki michezo kama vile football. Jambo lililompa burudani peke yake pale skuli ni kucheza gwaride.
Pamoja na kuwa alimaliza kidato hicho cha tatu, Haji Omar Kheir anasoma na kuandika kwa shida sana Kiswahili.
Kiingereza hawezi kusema au kuandika hata sentensi moja.
Kwa kifupi ni Pocho zaidi ya Pocho.
Baada ya kufeli kidato cha tatu na baada ya kuuona ugumu wa kazi ya uvuvi pale Kisiwani, bila kusema nyoko au kugeuka nyuma alichukuwa mkoba wake wa ukili akayoyomea mjini mtaa wa Gulioni.
Maisha ya Gulioni hayakuwa rahisi na baada ya mwaka akajikuta ameangukia Maandazi road, Msasani, Dar es Salaam. Hapa Msasani aliungana na kaka zake wawili, Kaiza na Utambo.
Wakati wa mchana muda wote walikuwa Msasani soko la samaki wakifanya ubangaizaji maarufu wanaita kupapatua. Lakini kazi hasa iliyoleta kipato ni utapeli na uhalifu.
Kaka yake Utambo amefungwa mara kadhaa kwa uhalifu na miaka ya hivi karibuni alikuwa akitumikia kifungo chake Shimo la Tewa, Mombasa.
Mwaka 1995, Haji Omar Kheir alirudi Gulioni, Zanzibar na kujiunga na Maskani ya CCM na kuwa kada mkereketwa katika uchaguzi wa kwanza wa vyama vingi.
CCM walikuwa wanahangaika na mtu wa kumsimamisha jimbo la Tumbatu. Katika hali iliyoshangaza wengi wakamsimamisha Haji Omar Kheir katika nafasi ya Baraza la Wawakilishi.
Matokeo ya uchaguzi, Haji Omar alishindwa vibaya sana na akawa analia alipokuwa kwenye mtumbwi akielekea Mkokotoni kuja mjini.
Watu waliachwa hoi pale Bwawani ZEC ilipo mtangaza Haji Omar Kheir kuwa ndio mshindi.
Na tokea hapo Haji Omar Kheir amukuwa Mwakilishi wa jimbo la Tumbatu kwa vipindi vitano mfululizo.
Wakati wa kipindi cha urais wa Dr Shein, alichaguliwa kuwa Waziri wa vikosi na hapo ndipo rangi halisi ya Haji Omar ilipojulikana.
Marehemu Maalim Seif amemtaja majukwaani na kuelezea uovu wa mtu huyu.
Haji Omar ndio muasisi wa Vikundi maarufu vya Zanzibar vya Janjawid, na vikosi kazi vyote vya kihalifu ambavyo vimeumiza, kutesa, kuteka na hata kuuawa watu nyakati za chaguzi zote za Zanzibar.
Mwaka 2023, Haji Omar aliteuliwa na Rais Samia kuwa ni mshauri wa Rais.
Samia alijua anachokifanya na waliomjua Haji Omar hawalkushangazwa na haya mauaji ya vijana kwa maelfu ya baada ya uchaguzi.
Yeye ndio alieratibu vikosi vya Zanzibar na Uganda vifanye mauaji ya vijana hawa.
Alikuwa ameteuliwa akiingoja siku kama hiyo iwadie.
Haji Omar ni Mafwele, Bashite Plus.
Mpaka sasa hivi mabinti zake wawili wameteuliwa kuwa wabunge wa viti maalum kati ya wabunge 113 wa CCM.
Pia amejilimbikizia utajiri mkubwa wa maghorofa, magari, ardhi, mashamba, na mengine mengi kwa shughuli, zake hizi za uhalifu unaofadhiliwa na dola.
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Makala hii ya Chambi Chachage inafikirisha:
Tragic October 29: Tanzania’s Turning Point?
Some, if not many of us, are looking for a single, logical answer. A singular explanation. That genuine human attempt to make sense out of thesenseless massacre, especially of young people, in the once relatively peaceful Tanzania, following the discredited election on October 29, 2025.There is no single story that can fully capture how Tanzania descended to this deadly point on that tragic October. None. At least, what we have so far are bold attempts to come up with nuanced analyses of how we ended down here – from Ben Taylor’s What Went Wrong in Tanzania? to Baruani Mshale’s Tanzania Baada ya Oktoba 29, 2025: Tunarejeshaje Kisiwa cha Amani? i.e., ‘Tanzania after October 29: How do we restore the Island of Peace’ in reference to our then brand.
Yet there are factors that many are still too afraid to address head-on. The killer elephant in the room. Who or what exactly halted the brief repose that characterized the then-celebrated first 100 days in office of President Samia Suluhu Hassan in 2021? How did her seemingly sweet retreat from the late President John Magufuli’s authoritarian rule end abruptly and turn extremely deadly?
The turning point
An ongoing informal social media poll may give a clue to what may be hidden in plain sight, way before the year 2025. It asks #Tanzania:#HerTurningPoint? Was it in 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024?
Some specific dates are provided for 2021 and 2023. Of particular interest here is June 13, 2023, when President Samia appointed her longtime colleague, Haji Omar Kheir, to be the presidential advisor on political and social relations. Most of us in Tanzania Mainland–Tanganyika, as some call it now–did not pay much attention. But some of our Zanzibari compatriots raised their voices on social media. They all associated him with some major atrocities against dissidents in Zanzibar.
Following the arrest-cum-abduction of Agather Atuhaire from Uganda and Boniface Mwangi from Kenya in Tanzania, the muted outcry of our compatriots started to make sense. “With the assistance of the photographs, videos, and social media posts that were shown to them,” the duo was “able to identify… their captors and torturers…” One of those mentioned is none other than “Mr Haji Omar Kheir – Presidential Advisor.” That was July 2025. No one resigned. And no one fired him.
Digital historians opted to dig deeper online to see what was so special about this presidential appointee. Among many other sources, they found an article published on July 5, 2015, in The Citizen entitled ‘Straight Talk: Zanzibar now at the mercy of hooligans.’
It talks about hooded hooligans suspected to be from the “Zanzibar government’s own brigades–KMKM, Fire Department, JKU, Volunteers, and Mafunzo” who “beat and threaten people at the time when the voter registration system was going on in Unguja.” Guess who was accused of letting them loose?
It is the then minister Haji Omar Kheir who “denied having knowledge of the vigilantes and instead put it that those were hooligans and they” had “nothing to do with the government’s own brigades, whilst everyone saw them around in government vehicles.”
The Citizen also noted that the hooligans had “been spotted carrying sub machine guns, pangas, clubs, and at least when invading and parading at the radio station several times, they were spotted carrying a chainsaw.” Déjà vu!
Our historians also found a Weyani TV’s YouTube video on September 23, 2020, showing the late Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad of the ACT Wazalendo party categorically saying the person who was responsible for sending (“his own”) troops to kill some people in Pemba is “one person and is well-known” to the Zanzibari. Without mincing words, he mentioned him by name: “Haji Omar Kheir.”
Maalim Seif’s speech reiterated that the audience should not even think it’s the police; rather, it was Haji Omar Kheir’s own forces. Expressing disappointment that no legal action was taken, he singled out some of those in higher echelons of, or contesting for, power in Zanzibar in 2020, as not being any different. Earlier and later sources cited in the hashtag #HajiOmarKheir either echo or corroborate him and also add atrocities akin tothose committed against Agather and Boniface.
Revisiting the past
Unfortunately, historians can hardly predict the future. The best they can do is to revisit the past in an attempt to make sense of the continuous present. So, they are wondering why a President of the United Republic of Tanzania would appoint a former Minister in the President’s Office of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar,responsible for Special Forces, to be her political advisor?
Historians are therefore not surprised that Tanzanians are now revisiting the discussions onJamiiForums (JF) on October 25, which some simply dismissed as far-fetched and/or a mere conspiracy theory. It has to do with a claim that an ununiformed force of 320 had been deployed countrywide to arrest all those who oppose the government. That was four days before the fateful October 29.
Brittanica, the JF-Expert Member, who posted that thread, said they didn’t have special vehicles; rather, they were using Land Cruisers. He/She also said their order was “shoot to kill.”
Why is this Modus Operandi (MO) so similar to what we witnessed on the tragic October 29 and its immediate aftermath? How come this MO is akin to what our fellow Zanzibaris were complaining about back then? Could it have something to do with June 13, when someone special entered the State House?