This shrew is known from Tanzanian mountains. Its back ranges from dark gray to brown-gray, and it was caught most often in higher-elevation forest in the cited survey.
Adults have a dark slate to dark brown-gray back and a paler underside. The feet are brown to dark reddish-brown, and tail hairs are concentrated near the base.
In Chome Forest Reserve in the South Pare Mountains, it made up 70% of shrews caught in montane forest around 2,000 m, but only 8% at a drier site around 1,100 m. These are survey catch proportions, not population estimates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.