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.

Tanzanian fashion designer Ally Rhemtullah has been invited to take part in the London Fashion Week scheduled for September 14-19. It is the first time a Tanzanian has been invited to the London Fashion week, which allows fashion designers or “houses” to display their latest collections. An excited Rhemtullah said he will showcase the modern Khanga because it will be a way of promoting Tanzanian culture “I am delighted because it is an honour to go and represent East Africa in one of the best fashion finale in the world,” he said – Daily News

A $1.8 million groundbreaking World Bank-backed experiment being launched this year in Tanzania, aimed at halting the spread of Aids, was described in the London Financial Times on April 19. The project will counsel 3,000 men and women aged 15-30 in southern rural areas over three years, paying them $45 a year on condition that periodic laboratory results prove that they have not contacted sexually transmitted infections. There will be a control arm of people not offered payment to track the effects of the project precisely.

The designers of the project believe that the payments, when combined with careful counseling, could play an important role in reducing HIV infection. Commenting in its leading article under the heading ‘Cash for safe sex’ the FT wrote: ‘This bribery to stay free of HIV will be controversial but it may increase the bargaining power of young women and give them an alternative to accepting money from richer, older boyfriends. Can the plan really work? It might. The world of development policy needs more dangerous ideas rigorously evaluated. This one is a long shot. It should be supported anyway.’

National identity cards will be issued in Tanzania in 2009. The project is being implemented under an independent National ID Management Agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It will cost $152 million and is aimed at controlling illegal immigration. Some 2,300 illegal immigrants were caught in the country during the first eight months of 2007.
At least 503 illegal immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea were in various prisons in the country awaiting deportation to their respective countries – Guardian.

In the summer of 2007 the remarkable student charity READ International distributed no less than 98,000 books (plus educational equipment) to 96 schools across four regions of Tanzania. Next year eleven projects will send 275,000 books to 200 Tanzanian schools and give over 100 UK school presentations. By 2009 the network aims to have 20 university affiliates and well over 1,000 student volunteers involved.

L-R Rob Wilson, Tom Levitt MP, Mwanadai Majaar, Douglas Alexander MP

The Director of READ International, Rob Wilson, describes how it began and the rapidity of its growth: Continue reading →

Thai experts are expected to start demonstrations to create rainfall in Mbeya and Iringa regions by March 2008 according to the Guardian. Director of Transport and Communications in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Dr Bartholomew Rufunjo, said the government and the delegation from Thailand, which was recently in Tanzania, had completed all the necessary preparations. Rufunjo said the costs would be shared by both governments. Tanzania would be responsible for handling the rainmakers and all the Tanzanian specialists and would provide an airplane to be used during cloud seeding. Thailand would provide the technology and equipment. Rufunjo said that Thais had been using such technology to create rainfall in their country for more than 30 years and nobody had been adversely affected

The Thai delegation included the Director of the ‘Royal Rainmaking Bureau.’ Some water experts however, said that it would have an adverse effect on the environment. A scientist at the Water Resources Institute in Dar es Salaam warned that the government must first study the viability, practicability and implications of artificial rain technology before importing it. She said that the chemicals used could affect climatic patterns, the ecosystem, water sources and the soil. Excessive use of the chemicals would affect biodiversity and make the soil unproductive, besides being a water pollutant.

Workers protested at the head offices of the state-owned Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) in Dar es Salaam on October 1 as the new strategic investor officially took over the management of its operations. They made a spirited but unsuccessful attempt to block the facility’s long-awaited official handover. The old corporation, whose condition was described in the Guardian as being generally regarded as pathetic, was finally handed over to the new ‘Tanzania Railway Ltd as (TRL)’ – a firm set up jointly by the Government of Tanzania (49%) and Rites Company Ltd of India (51%). The latter operates as a wing of the Government of India. Speaking at the handing-over ceremony, Infrastructure Development Minister Andrew Chenge said that the TRL would increase the newlook facility’s capacity to handle cargo and expand the country’s trade and business with neighbouring countries like Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Continue reading →

A dramatic encounter near Moshi on September 8 resulted in the killing of 14 Kenyans suspected to have been planning to raid the Exim Bank branch. The Police action is believed to have foiled the robbery attempt following a fierce exchange of fire. The Police recovered an AK47 rifle, five pistols and a sizeable number of rounds of ammunition plus passports and identity cards with the suspects’ bodies, Meanwhile, Police in Nairobi said they had been informed that the 14 were also planning to rescue six Kenyans facing robbery charges in Tanzania. The incident came a month after the arrest of two Kenyans in connection with a $180,000 bank robbery in Mwanga, Kilimanjaro Region. Following a tip-off, police arrested the two in a house in Arusha’s Njiro Estate and recovered seven guns, including two AK47 rifles with 85 rounds of ammunition, a light machine gun, five pistols with 35 rounds of ammunition, two hand grenades, two bullet proof jackets, bhang and US$ 845. Continue reading →