“For African opposition leaders, another key lobbyist is Jeffrey Smith, a U.S.-based democracy advocate who gained fame with his social-media campaigning to help Gambians topple their long-ruling dictator, Yahya Jammeh, in 2017.

Today, through his firm, Vanguard Africa, he provides support to opposition leaders in Uganda, Cameroon and Tanzania, among others, by building their relationships with North American and European politicians and media.”

“The violence perpetrated against those in Tanzania who are not card-carrying members of the ruling party is unsurprising. The warning signs have long been there,” said Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa a Washington, based pro-democracy advocacy group, whose board is composed of a bipartisan team of high-powered public relations professionals and political consultants.

“Magufuli and the Chama Cha Mapinduzi [Party] are running roughshod and bulldozing any semblance of democracy,” Smith added.

Jeffrey Smith of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy nonprofit organisation based in Washington, told AFP that Lissu -- who has partnered with them -- told him on the phone earlier he had been seeking diplomatic protection for several hours without luck.

“Tanzania’s election is the most brazenly rigged I've ever seen,” said Jeffrey Smith, the founding director nonprofit group Vanguard Africa. “The regime isn't even trying to make it look credible. Any facade of democracy is gone. This is full-scale dictatorship.”

Jeffrey Smith, the founding director of Vanguard Africa, which has advised activists and opposition campaigns in Cameroon, the Gambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, said: “This is going to sound mundane, but quite honestly the biggest challenge that I have seen and have worked to try and assuage over the years has been the petty, often personal political differences that inhibit various individuals and opposition parties who essentially agree on 99% of the issues.”

Street protests seem to be the most viable option people have at their disposal for political change in Cameroon as there are no indications for reforms or the long-serving president quitting power, according to Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy advocacy group. “Biya is a prime example of a leader who has stayed in power long beyond his political expiration date,” Smith says.

Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, a U.S.-based democracy advocacy group, said the Rusesabagina case is a prime example of Rwanda’s habit of targeting its opponents in foreign countries.

“Western leaders are hesitant to speak out,” Mr. Smith said. “They’re desperate for a development success story – something they can sell to their citizens as to why their taxpayer dollars are going abroad – even when cases like this one point to a darker, more sinister reality on the ground. And Paul Kagame and his ruling party know how to play off the collective guilt from the lack of response to the 1994 genocide.”

According to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of the pro-democracy nonprofit Vanguard Africa, “The State Department’s call for due process and a fair trial in Rwanda is farcical, and I expect that officials [at the State Department] know as much,” he said. “All they have to do is read their own country reports going back decades, to know that none of these conditions will be remotely met in Rwanda.”

Pedro Pizano and Jeffrey Smith, with the McCain Institute and Vanguard Africa respectively, discuss the reputation laundering that musicians, actors and athletes facilitate when they agree to perform for dictators and kleptocrats. They also describe how these same artists can use their platforms for good instead and show support for the citizens living under brutal regimes.

Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy advocacy group, said it was not surprising that neither Belgium nor the US had publicly launched a campaign on Rusesabagina’s behalf.

Smith said he believed it reflected a reticence to criticise a country that was seen as having benefited from development aid and western support, and emerged as an African success story – even as grave human rights abuses by Kagame’s government had been ignored by the western leaders who supported him.