Presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya) and Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi) at the signing of the EAC Common Market Protocol. Picture Paul Sarwatt

East African Community (EAC) leaders formally agreed on November 20 to allow free trade, movement of people and right of residence in the region, with the signing of the protocol establishing a common market. This followed protracted negotiations between the five member states. All promised to arrange for ratification without delay. President Museveni of Uganda underlined the new found spirit of integration by inviting the other EAC members to become partners with Uganda in drilling for the oil that had been discovered there recently.

If an important element of a flourishing democracy is the existence of an outspoken elected parliament not afraid to take a country’s administration to task when it fails to satisfy the aspirations of the people, Tanzania now has a flourishing democracy. The parliament of 2009 is hardly recognisable when compared with the performance of earlier parliaments which either didn’t want to or were afraid to tackle the government head on.

On the issue of corruption above all, MP’s are making themselves heard, especially now that they have been allowed to expose it, investigate it, insist on punishment of the guilty parties and propose measures to stop it.

Armed with new powers and donor funding (see TA 93), Tanzania’s National Assembly is nowadays really exercising its authority. Among the many cases where questions have been asked or the Assembly has brought its influence to bear are the following (details in other articles below):
– the Richmond electricity and Bank of Tanzania scandals;
– the controversial sale (and recent reversal of the move) of the Kiwira coal mine;
– the allocation of hunting blocks and trophy fees;
– the performance of Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS), the Tanzania Ports Authority and Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL);
– the Buzwagi gold development agreement; other gold-related deals involving the central bank;
– the DECI pyramid scheme; MP’s wanted to know why no steps were taken in time before people were swindled;
– the national ID project;
– complaints from 12 civil servants who served for over 10 years without being put on the permanent payroll;
– smuggling of ivory to Vietnam;
– seizing and destroying small fishing nets banned by the government; the Minister pointed out that he was only implementing the law the MP’s had themselves passed:
– the failure of TANESCO to submit its master plan; and,
– the sale of Williamson Diamond Mine to Petra Diamonds of South Africa.

MP’s pay and allowances

In August, as in the UK, the salaries and allowances of MP’s themselves came under the spotlight when details were revealed by leading anti-corruption crusader CHADEMA’s Dr Wilbroad Slaa. Just as in UK this was not a popular move as far as some MP’s were concerned. He began to be booed by his colleagues when he advocated salary cuts. He said that their salaries should be made proportional to the salaries of public employees. “Let them jeer me. It will wash off my back, for the final decision will come from my voters next year” he declared.

As in the UK, the Speaker’s sympathies seemed to be with the MP’s who were protesting. In an interview with the Guardian on Sunday the Speaker said it was not true that legislators were earning a huge income. MP’s taxable base stood at Shs 1.8million (£ 840); the rest of the money paid to them was shared with their aides. Critics were wrongly including their allowances and other charges in their monthly salaries. “Is it fair to include a sitting allowance, per diem and other charges in an MP’s monthly pay?  Is it also justifiable to include the salary of an assistant to an MP’s monthly pay? ” he asked. He said the allowances paid to the MPs were just the same as the allowances paid to all other public servants of the same rank, adding that all senior officers were paid per diems and sitting allowances.

At the height of this row in July, the Speaker said that a group of people were putting his life in serious danger. This followed alleged reports circulated on the internet that he was plotting to torch parliamentary offices to destroy sensitive files containing negative information about him. Two tabloid newspapers were said to have been running fabricated stories meant to undermine him in his personal and official capacity. He asked the government to strengthen his security.

Praise
The Assembly gained praise when the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority stated that it had achieved 92% in levels of procurement compliance – the highest figure in the country.

STOP PRESS
As this issue of TA went to press, there was further drama surrounding parliament. At a meeting of the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) a group of MP’s expressed their anger at the way in which Speaker Samuel Sitta had allowed CCM MP’s to be critical of the government. They demanded his resignation. President Kikwete allowed them all to express their opinions – for 17 hours – before a compromise was reached. The Speaker apologised and an ad hoc committee was set up, under former President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, to come up with guidelines for the conduct of the party’s MP’s. This decision, which many thought was designed to ‘gag’ CCM MP’s who were not toeing the government line, brought all kinds of criticism from personalities outside parliament. The leader of the official opposition in parliament, Mr Hamad Rashid, said the move by the ruling party was “proof that it does not respect democracy and good governance”. Other opposition leaders suggested that CCM MP’s who were not happy should think about joining the opposition!

The very busy Director General of the Prevention and Control of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Dr Edward Hoseah, has revealed to the investigative newspaper ‘This Day’ that the forthcoming trials of prominent citizens all involved ‘grand corruption.’ Several investigations were being finalised, he said.

Meanwhile, the Swiss Ambassador in Dar, during the launch of an online corruption tracker system, pledged to help Tanzania recover any public funds that may have been stashed away in its banks by corrupt people. The ambassador said his country would also “gladly help to repatriate funds” confirmed to have been looted from Tanzania and hidden in Swiss banks.

‘The least corrupt’
In spite of all this, a new Transparency International report released in July said that Tanzania was the least corrupt nation in the East African region. The Kenya Police were said to be the most corrupt institution in East Africa and Kenya had the highest incidence of corruption at 45%. Uganda was 34% and the figure was similar in Tanzania.

The High Commissioner speaks on ‘grand corruption’
Tanzanian High Commissioner in London, Mrs Mwanaidi Maajar, interviewed in the Guardian, said that ‘in the war on grand corruption, people in other countries shouldn’t judge Tanzania by the number of reports on corruption appearing in the media but by the way the country was fighting the vice. ‘International opinion makers normally focus on what governments are doing about it. For example, people in the UK are keen to know what the government will do to ensure that expenditure-related scandals involving MP’s do not recur because that is what matters the most.’ The Tanzanian government had done a lot to address the corruption problem, she said.

The Richmond case
This scandal, which resulted in the resignation of former Prime Minster Edward Lowassa and other ministers, has been described in detail in earlier issues of TA. A House Select Committee formed in 2007 said there was ample evidence that Richmond was a briefcase company incapable of manufacturing even electric bulbs; it could not have complied with an agreement it made to supply electricity to Tanzania. The committee made many recommendations but there was no reaction from the government for several weeks. MP’s began to complain.

Finally in August the government issued its response entitled: ‘Implementation of the Parliamentary Directives.’ It exonerated PCCB Director-General Edward Hosea and Attorney General Johnson Mwanyika. It also exonerated civil servants whose names had been linked to the contract. None of the officials was liable for legal action and the government would take punitive measures only if an official was implicated in the ongoing court cases against the owners of the Richmond Company. MP’s were far from happy with this and the government came under fire from all sides of the House. Opposition CHADEMA MP Zitto Kabwe told The Citizen that the Richmond debacle had exposed the Government and heightened its differences with parliament.

President Kikwete
After what was described as the ‘fierce debate’ in parliament, rumours began to circulate about a possible involvement by the president himself in the scandal. Within hours of the debate the State House issued a remarkably detailed response strongly denying the rumours.

It said that the president was involved in four different stages of the saga. In the first stage, he allowed Tanesco to hire emergency power generating plants. At the second stage, he asked the World Bank to allow Tanzania to use a portion of its aid granted by the Bank under the Debt Relief Initiative, to pay the cost of hiring emergency power generating plants during the 2006 electricity crisis. The Bank allowed Tanzania to spend $225million to hire emergency power generating plants. Part of the money was used to buy a 100 megawatt power plant. The President was also involved in chairing all cabinet meetings that discussed the 2006 power crisis. During these meetings the President made it clear that despite the looming power crisis, public procurement procedures should be followed to ensure that Tanesco got a competent bidder. At the fourth stage, the President blocked a $10 million down payment to Richmond and demanded accurate reports about the integrity of the Texas-based company. The President had also rejected an application by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, seeking approval for Richmond’s request to receive down payments. The President also demanded thorough research about the company before the releasing of any down payments.

The Radar saga
A ‘This Day’ reporter wrote that it appeared that the PCCB was having difficulty in building an airtight case against some prominent suspects in this three-year long $28 million military radar transaction scandal. In February the PCCB said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had opted to withhold his mandatory consent for the prosecution of the suspects pending further investigations. The paper reported in August that the PCCB had lined up at least five major corruption cases for early prosecution but it was yet to obtain consent from the office of the DPP to prosecute the Radar trial.

Part of the radar component at the International Airport in Dar

The Bank of Tanzania scandal
One of the accused in the case involving the Shs 133 billion losses incurred by the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) has said he made his confession of guilt under duress.

Meanwhile, questions over the BoT’s expenditure were again highlighted in the latest report of the office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) which reported on fraudulent public procurement procedures, dubious agreements and cheating on allowances which had caused causing massive loss of public funds. Extract: ‘For example, the Dar twin-tower construction agreement indicated that the contractor had to pay both the public liability risk insurance and the damage to property risk insurance. But the BoT also signed an agreement with an insurance agent and paid Shs7.3bn for a similar purpose.’

The Kiwira Coal Mine saga
Several new developments: Following China’s contribution to the construction of the Shs 4.2 million mine in the early 1980s it soon ground to a halt before former President Mkapa’s administration decided to sell it in a controversial deal in which the former president himself with family and partners, was alleged to have bought the mine at a cut-down price.

In July 2009 however the Government absolved Mkapa from suspicions surrounding the mine’s sale telling Parliament that the former President withdrew his 200,000 shares from the firm in 2005 after the firm through which he had bought the shares failed to pay for them. This absolved him from accusations that he used his influence as head of state to engineer the failed venture.
On June 5 Energy and Minerals Minister William Ngeleja announced that the government had taken back the mine and was determined to implement a project to generate 200 megawatts of electricity within 18 months.

Finally, in August, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda announced that China was going to invest $400 million to revive the mine which was no longer operating – The Citizen.

DECI
The Guardian reported in May on a financial scheme, started in 2007 and known as the ‘Development Entrepreneurship Community Initiative’ or DECI – a pyramid or ponzi scheme. In a short space of time membership had grown to some 700,000 and it was believed to have 46 up-country branches. Apparently an alert by the media helped to make ‘largely innocent public and overly gullible government agencies’ wake up to the fact that this money game was criminal. Finally the government issued a statement declaring that enough was enough and effectively prevented the scheme from continuing [see TA 93]

However, 82 Pentecostal Church of Tanzania leaders had earlier called on the government to intervene in favour of DECI in its wrangle with the Bank of Tanzania and the Capital Markets and Securities Authority over the legitimacy of the scheme’s operations. After the government ordered DECI to close down, five DECI officials, said to be pastors of the Pentecostal Church, appeared in court charged with illegally conducting and managing the pyramid scheme.

According to Nipashe, while opening a tourist hotel in the Serengeti Park, President Kikwete was seen to be visibly annoyed with the Regional Commissioner for Mara, because of the way he was considered to be running his region. He asked the RC to leave the function and go and deal with his problems including tribal clashes in Rorya and Tarime districts and the environmental degradation caused by North Mara gold mines and his failure to submit a report he had been asked to submit.

There have been three by-elections in recent weeks:

Busandu, Geita
There was plenty of drama during the intensely-fought Busandu by-election which took place on May 24. Once again there was a poor turnout with only 55,460 voters (41%) casting their ballots out of 135,168 registered voters. CCM won with 29,242 and the leading opposition party on the mainland CHADEMA got 22,799. The other main opposition CUF party must have been very disappointed by its 957 votes.

Veteran CCM leader Ngombale-Mwiru, said the problem for CHADEMA was that it was facing CCM with its strong and organised network of branches and leaders right down to the village level, while CHADEMA depended on its helicopter, rabble rousers and cheer leaders. “At the end of the day people leave noisy rallies and go back to the CCM network. What CHADEMA lacks is a grass roots organisation. Among the opposition parties only CUF is well organised in Zanzibar,” Ngombale- Mwiru said.

However, CHADEMA Deputy Secretary General Zitto Kabwe pointed out that his party had increased its votes in Busanda from 4% in 2005 to 44% in 2009. He told reporters: “This time they won; now we are waiting for the next by-election in Biharamulo. I have called the CCM deputy Secretary General and congratulated him on his victory” – details were in all the Swahili newspapers.

Biharamulo
The CCM party came very close to losing the fiercely contested by-election in Biharamulo West. The CCM got 17,561 votes against 16,700 for CHADEMA – a majority of only 861. The by-election also illustrated the growing strength of CHADEMA which got 48.8% of the vote. The other major opposition party CUF, which rarely does well on the mainland, got very few votes.
An angry CHADEMA Chairman Freeman Mbowe said that the results had been doctored and warned that the “conspiracy” between the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and CCM was a recipe for “disorder and bloodshed” in the country. “In any case it shows we are now a formidable force ready to take over from CCM, especially if you compare this result with our past performances.” He said that his party didn’t intend to file a petition because the NEC had already announced that there would be no more by-elections until the 2010 elections, so even if CHADEMA succeeded in unseating CCM the result would be no MP for Biharamulo. Once again there was a low turnout – of the 87,188 voters on the permanent register, only 35,338 (41%) cast their ballots – The Citizen.

Magogoni, Zanzibar
At the Magogoni by-election, at which 13 EU observers were present, the CCM candidate, Asha Hilal, won comfortably with 2,874 votes compared with the opposition CUF’s 1,974. “The election was free and fair and I have conceded defeat,” the CUF candidate said. The Zanzibar Electoral Commission applauded the political maturity and tolerance shown by the political parties during the by-election and said that this was a manifestation that Zanzibar could conduct free and fair elections devoid of chaos. Since the introduction of a multiparty system in 1992, Zanzibar has held reconciliation talks twice following political instability in the
Isles resulting from alleged electoral misconduct – Guardian.

Presidents Kikwete and Obama

President Kikwete was the first African head of state to be invited to Washington by President Obama following his inauguration in January. During the May visit, President Obama said that his invitation was in recognition of the Tanzania’s leader’s impeccable credentials and his successful policies. “I want you to succeed in your leadership. Tell me how you would like us to assist you to continue on your successful path. I am really pleased with your leadership.’’ He praised Tanzania for laying emphasis on education, which he described as a pinnacle of good leadership. He promised to step up American assistance in the Millennium Challenge projects in Tanzania to ensure more prosperity. Mr Kikwete briefed his US counterpart on his efforts to bring about political reconciliation in Zanzibar and also discussed the situation in Darfur, the Congo, Somalia and Kenya and what America could do for Tanzania.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Tanzania as a country which had made “so much progress and has an extraordinary potential that we wish to partner with and assist in every way possible. I myself have had a wonderful visit to your country, Mr President. And I am delighted that I am the Secretary of State at this moment and have this chance to commit our efforts to working closely with you. I’m here to reaffirm our commitment for continued cooperation.”

“I am here to give you an assurance of continued cooperation” Mr Kikwete said. Speaking later President Kikwete said, to enthusiastic applause: “Whatever area of investment one is interested in, rest assured that opportunities abound in Tanzania.” He told the gathering that Tanzania was a vibrant multi-party democracy and that political stability was guaranteed.