Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Minister Bernard Membe has said that Tanzania is opposed to the idea of the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicting Sudanese President General Omar El-Bashir for genocide. He said if this were to happen there would be a power vacuum that could hamper the peace process in Darfur, adding that the priority should now be to deploy the 26,000-person UN/African Union mission there – Mtanzania.
By Joseph Kilasara
Exchange rate £1 = TShs 2,222
The Budget
The mood from the finance minister Hon. Mkullo about the economy’s performance was both upbeat and optimistic. Coming at a time when his counterparts, particularly in Western Europe and America, are reeling in the fallout from the credit crunch and skyrocketing commodity prices he must be a very optimistic man.
He estimates that the economy will grow at 7.8% this year (2007, 7.1%) and at over 8.1% next year with inflation being controlled at below 7% by June 2009 (9.7% April, 2008). His confidence is evidenced by the increasing availability of commercial bank credit which rose by 42% with lending rates declining to an average of 15.1% to March, 2008. The signing of the US sponsored Millennium Challenge Compact Agreement totalling around US$698m over 5yrs for infrastructure projects will also play a part.
While he identifies inflation as one of the major challenges to the economy, faltering economies of most donor countries could also prove to be another headache, as they are estimated to contribute about 34% of the budget. The falling price of oil may facilitate the achievement of the inflation target but it is likely to affect the level of revenue as oil related taxes contribute up to 20% total revenue projected. Continue reading
President Kikwete did not cross the Ruvuma River bordering Tanzania and Mozambique to accept the invitation he had received to join celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Frelimo, the ruling party in Mozambique. The president was offered the use of a small boat with a sail to cross because the Mkenda Kivukoni Bridge was still under construction. Jokingly, he said: “I gazed at that small boat and said to myself, mhh, I am a Mkwere without swimming skills. Better for Membe to do it because he has married an Mbambabay. He can swim.” The president was therefore represented at the anniversary celebrations by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Membe – Sunday Observer.
The Infrastructure Development Ministry has directed upcountry bus operators and drivers to discontinue their tendency to stop anywhere on the highway to let passengers alight for short or long calls in adjacent bushes – Guardian.
The government is in the process of drafting a new law that would allow Tanzanians to have dual citizenship. When the process has been completed a Bill will be presented to both parliaments.
The government has plans to raise the number of agricultural extension officers so as to be able to post one officer in each village in the country by the year 2011. The Minister of Agriculture said that a number of training centres for the officers had been revived and that, by the end of this year, 1,200 officers would be available, while from next year the centres were expected to churn out 3,000 officers annually in a move to usher in an agricultural revolution in the country.
MICROSOFT and the Aga Khan Foundation are planning to establish 13 Community Technology Centres in Tanzania. ‘‘This project will characteristically focus on training unemployed and under-served youth in ICT skills to enhance their opportunities for employment and income generation,’’ said Mr Louis Otieno, the Microsoft East and Southern Africa, General Manager. He said the project will first be implemented in Arusha and Songea regions before moving to other regions. To promote rural economic development, the two organizations plan to help expand access to information and technology through the Aga Khan Foundation’s existing Rural Support Programmes.
Ally Rhemtullah
Mourners at the funeral of Bokhe Munanka
Former minister in the first post-independence cabinet, Bokhe Munanka (81) died on July 25 after complaining of chest problems. He was at one time Secretary of the Pan Africa Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa and was imprisoned for political reasons in 1958. He was elected Member of Parliament for North Mara in the first general election in Tanganyika in 1959 and served as a personal assistant to the President from 1964 to 1972.
Edited by John Cooper-Poole (UK) and Marion Doro (USA)
WAR IN PRE-COLONIAL EASTERN AFRICA. Richard Reid, (London: British Institute in Eastern Africa/Oxford: James Currey, 2007). Pp. xvi+256, ISBN 978-1-84701-604-1. £55.00 cloth. £16.95 paper.
This is an illuminating study that seeks to put African warfare in a more objective context than that which has prevailed since the colonial period and, to a significant degree, persists to this day. According to these dated, yet hardy, models, African warfare was usually ‘barbarous’ and had little to do with ‘civilized’ motives but everything to do with cattle-rustling and slave-raiding. ‘This was combat that lacked the soul, the aims and the complexity of ‘civilized war’ as Richard Reid puts it; ‘these were parochial and decidedly low-calibre struggles’. Furthermore, the nineteenth century European-promulgated stereotype – still with us today, as those familiar with reportage on African violence will know – portrayed these struggles as ‘irrational’ and ‘interminable’, suggesting that all Africans did was fight each other and, of course, providing one of the bedrock justifications of European rule and pax colonia. ‘The aim of this book, put simply, is to contribute to the growing refutation of these notions. The history of African warfare is perhaps the last bastion of the kind of distorted Eurocentric scholarship that characterized African studies before the 1960’s. Continue reading
The cover features President Bush at the A-Z mosquito net factory near Arusha
A pdf of the full issue can be downloaded here
President Kikwete’s recent bold actions in tackling corruption in Tanzania and his appointment as head of the African Union (AU) have greatly enhanced his stature on the international scene. When former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reached deadlock after tortuous negotiations with Kenyan leaders to try to establish a power sharing government, President Kikwete, was called to Nairobi and in a very short time (on February 28 to be precise) the two squabbling Kenyan parties reached agreement.
The East African front page
The ‘East African’ was unstinting in its praise for President Kikwete as indicated by the front page of the paper shown above. Continue reading
The President eventually returned home where his encouragement of people and press to expose corruption was having remarkable effects on the political situation in the country. The ramifications were everywhere. The media and MP’s in the newly emboldened parliament heard new revelations about major corruption on an almost daily basis. The sudden resignation of the Prime Minister and then President Kikwete’s action in dissolving the whole government – see below – shook the nation. Continue reading
Issue Number 89 of Tanzanian Affairs described in some detail the major cases of alleged corruption which had been revealed at that time (see here). The latest situation can be summarized as follows:
THE BANK OF TANZANIA SCANDAL
The report of the Presidential Task Force on the biggest scam – in the External Payments Arrears (EPA) section of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), involving the loss of some $130 million – is being eagerly awaited but had not been published as this issue of TA went to press. Rumours of possible involvement of big personalities were circulating. The Bank’s sacked Governor Dr Daudi Balali, was reported to be in America. Police have already claimed to have recovered some $50 million of the estimated losses and to have identified some of the guilty parties.
Dr Mwakyembe prior to delivering his report in Dodoma
It is understood that the Richmond saga began when plans were being made for the construction of an oil pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza. There was intense international competition to obtain the construction contract. Eventually it was awarded to a hitherto unknown American company called Richmond Development Company. It soon became apparent however that this company was not able to do the job.
In 2006 Tanzania faced a serious crisis in electricity supply and, as an emergency measure Richmond was awarded a contract to supply generators to provide 100 megawatts at a cost of TShs 172 billion. The generators failed to arrive on time and when they did they did not work as required.
The pipeline was never built and the generators were provided by another company. Under part of the contract however the government agreed to pay some $137,000 a day regardless of the amount of electricity provided. Opposition MP’s began to smell a rat and the House of Assembly set up a Select Committee to investigate the whole saga under the chairmanship of the ruling CCM party’s Kyela MP Dr Harrison Mwakyembe. The committee worked diligently and eventually came up with a 165- page report.
MP’s shocked and angry
On February 8 the Guardian described what happened when Dr Mwakyembe read his report to Parliament: ‘Courteous norms and sugar-coated language were set aside as fiery MP’s spoke with bitterness as they contributed to the debate on the findings of the select committee. Opposition and government CCM MP’s spoke with one voice in criticizing the contract imposed by top government officials on TANESCO…. It was a ‘born-again’ Parliament, with MP’s clearly stating that the time for tolerating vice and the signing of bad contracts by ministers and other public officials while Parliament looked on helplessly were gone for good. After hearing the committee’s findings they said: “It’s time we (legislators) joined hands. It is time we worked together regardless of our political differences in matters of public interest. We have to protect the welfare of millions of Tanzanians who are dying simply because of problems caused by these dubious contracts” MP’s said. Anna Komu (opposition CUF MP) said “The squandered TShs 200billion were equivalent to the annual budgets of the ministries of Education and Community Development and Gender, and Children’s Affairs. Philemon Ndesamburo (opposition CHADEMA MP), asked the President to drop the head of the PCCB anti-corruption authority and Attorney General from the task force investigating the BoT scandal and said that those behind the Richmond contract should be taken to court and have their property confiscated by the state. “In other countries, such people are hanged in public” he said.
The Select Committee Report
Dr Mwakyembe told parliament that his committee had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Richmond did not deserve to be awarded the tender for the generators. “We would like to announce in this Parliament that Richmond Development Company LLC, which won the tender and eventually signed a contract with TANESCO on June 23, 2006 lacked experience, expertise and was financially incapacitated.” The firm had no share records or registration in the US or Tanzania and the whole bidding process had been marred by corruption and gross irregularities. Richmond had later passed its contract to Dowans Holdings. Dr Mwakyembe came up with 16 recommendations to make those responsible for ‘this shameful act’ pay for their misdeeds.
He said that due to the fact that the final selection of Richmond as the successful bidder was done by Prime Minister Edward Lowassa himself on June 21, 2006, and due to the fact that he had exerted pressure to have Richmond awarded the tender, it was upon him to ponder over his responsibility to the nation.
Nazir Karamagi
The committee also proposed that the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Nazir Karamagi, be taken to task for barring TANESCO from withdrawing from the agreement which it wished to do. The committee said Karamagi’s decision indicated that some trusted leaders were out to advance their personal interests at the expense of national interests.
As for a subsequent report by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), a report which had cleared the Richmond contract, the committee said that this had been a ‘whitewash.’ The committee proposed that immediate changes in the Bureau`s management be made to restore public confidence in it. It was not there to cover blunders.
The committee also proposed that Attorney General Johnson Mwanyika, and his representative, Donald Chidowu, who formed part of the Government negotiation team, be fired immediately for failure to advise the government on the various irregularities. Mwakyembe said his committee had failed to comprehend the degree of arrogance displayed by officials in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, who had deliberately disregarded the advice of the cabinet on adherence to procurement procedures and had three times ignored technical advice by the Public Procurement Control Authority. The ministry had ended up granting Richmond the contract and rejecting eight other applicants.
Mwakyembe’s committee further advised on the need for the government to abandon the ‘colonial attitude’ that contracts between the government and private companies should remain secret. Parliamentary standing committees should be involved in the early preparations of agreements, Mwakyembe said.
The committee’s report also implicated former Energy Minister Dr Ibrahim Msabaha for the confusion that reigned during the entire process, which had denied possibly more credible companies from the right to win the tender. Mwakyembe said Msabaha was reported to have told MP’s that he had no powers on the irregularities because the company belonged to the ‘big boss’, meaning the Prime Minister. “I am only taken as `Bangusilo,` meaning in the Zaramo language, a ‘sacrificial lamb’ to die for others” – Guardian.
Mwakyembe said that since Richmond falsely presented itself as having been registered in the USA, its proprietors and all collaborators should face justice. Commenting on allegations that the business registration authority, BRELA had allowed the swapping of genuine files of Richmond with fake ones, Mwakyembe said BRELA should submit reports to the relevant ministry on a weekly basis and copies of the files should be preserved by the government separately. The drama continued when CCM MP Lucas Seleli, who was a member of the Select Committee, took to the podium to tear apart earlier allegations made by Prime Minister Lowassa that the committee had condemned him unheard. He challenged the Prime Minister to withdraw his allegations, short of which he would seek the application of Parliamentary Standing Orders to compel the Prime Minister to apologize. The Prime Minister had had a hand in the whole transaction he said.
When Lowassa rose to respond to Seleli’s demand that he withdraw his remarks, he said a line that was contained in the report that had particularly disturbed him was to the effect that ‘The proprietors of Richmond are Prime Minister Lowassa and his close friend (Igunga MP) Rostam Aziz.’ The Speaker sidestepped this issue by inviting other MP’s to contribute to the debate on the findings. Then followed the announcement by the Prime Minister that he intended to reign over the Richmond scandal and the ministers for Energy and Minerals (Nazir Karamagi) and East African Cooperation (Dr. Ibrahim Msabaha) also resigned. Karamagi said the government signed the agreement in good faith because the country was facing power problems – Guardian.
The most heartbreaking factor experienced when collecting evidence, said the chairman, was the fear shown by government officials, including professionals. “The time has come for this House to enact a law that would protect junior officers when giving information to relevant authorities in the interest of the nation.“
After all this, as recently as late April 2008 Richmond was advertising in the press that it was a respectable company – Guardian.
“Sorry the headmaster interrupted me – which topic were we on ? The Sullivan Conference [to be held in June 08] or the World Cup ?” “The Richmond and EPA scandals, teacher” Cartoon by Kipanya www.kipanya.co.tz