Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Friday ordered the release of close to 500 youth facing treason charges for engaging in anti-government demonstrations during the October 29 General Election, striking a motherly tone with a potentially decisive demographic of the country’s populace in the early days of her final term in office.

In an eagerly awaited speech to a nation still reeling from the effects of the deadly violence inflicted on the demonstrators by state security forces, Samia said most of the suspects “did not know what they were doing” and were “only going with the flow.”

“Being a mother myself, I view the youth as builders of our nation, not destroyers,” she said while officially launching the newly instituted National Assembly in Dodoma.

“I have therefore instructed state prosecutors to weigh each of those treason cases on merit and set free all those who are proven to have been misguided by influencers from within or outside the country.”

The death toll from the unprecedently brutal crackdown on Tanzanian Gen Z protesters, during whi