Karume Day

Karume Day commemorates Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, head of the Afro-Shirazi Party, first President of revolutionary Zanzibar and first Vice-President of the United Republic. He was shot dead on April 7, 1972 while playing bao at the ASP headquarters at Kisiwandui. Government later made the anniversary a day of rest, and both mainland institutions and Zanzibar observe it in the published calendar.

Official commemoration credits Karume with land redistribution, housing and expanded public services and with signing the Union. Historical assessment must also address the authoritarian revolutionary state, confiscations, imprisonment and abuses against opponents and Arab and South Asian communities. Remembering his assassination does not require treating every policy or account of 1964–72 as uncontested.

This date appears as a public holiday in the official 2026 DSE calendar and in recurring government lists, although it is not separately named in the current Public Holidays Act schedule. It should therefore be followed from the current annual official calendar rather than described as an express Cap. 35 schedule item. The current Act has no automatic weekend replacement rule. Workers and employers should apply the legal instrument establishing the closure together with the distinct mainland and Zanzibar employment statutes.