We're loading the complete profile of this person of interest including their biography, achievements, and contributions.

Former President, Tanganyika Law Society
Public Views
Experience
Documented career positions
Fatma Amani Abeid Karume (born 1969), affectionately and reverently known on Tanzanian social media as "Shangazi" (Auntie), is a fearless human rights lawyer, activist, and the former President of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS). She possesses one of the most prominent political pedigrees in the country: she is the granddaughter of Zanzibar’s first president, Abeid Amani Karume, and the daughter of its sixth president, Amani Abeid Karume. Despite her establishment bloodline, Fatma emerged as the fiercest, most articulate critic of state authoritarianism during the regime of President John Magufuli, a posture she maintained into the Samia Suluhu era. During her tenure as TLS President, she transformed the bar association into a fortress of constitutional defense. Her uncompromising legal challenges against presidential appointments and electoral laws led to severe state retaliation; in September 2020, the High Court of Tanzania permanently disbarred her from practicing law on the mainland over allegations of "professional misconduct" in a highly politicized ruling. Unbroken, she shifted her battleground to international advocacy and digital activism, remaining a towering figure of resistance in East Africa.
Elected President of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) in 2018, leading the legal fraternity in intense opposition to state-sponsored human rights abuses
Launched landmark constitutional petitions challenging the President's unchecked power to appoint the Attorney General and control electoral commission frameworks
Maintains a massive, highly influential digital footprint, acting as a one-woman civic education platform for millions of Tanzanian youth
Permanently disbarred from practicing law in mainland Tanzania in 2020 by the Advocates Disciplinary Committee following a controversial High Court complaint regarding her written submissions, which the court deemed disrespectful to the President and the Judiciary
Her law firm, IMMMA Advocates, was targeted in a terrifying 2017 bombing incident in Dar es Salaam; no group claimed responsibility, but it was widely viewed as state-sponsored intimidation
Frequently clashes online with CCM loyalists who accuse her of leveraging her family's untouchable Zanzibar revolutionary legacy to shield herself from the consequences of her activism
News articles featuring Fatma Karume
Partner at IMMMA Advocates (DLA Piper Africa), previously handling multi-million dollar corporate and constitutional litigation