Zitto fights back in effort to salvage political career

To Mr Zitto Kabwe, the youthful politician who joined the opposition party, Chadema, at the age of 16, his current political tribulations could be summed up as the struggle between pro-democracy and anti-democracy forces within the party. PHOTO|EDWIN MJWAHUZI 

By Polycarp Machira The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• Amid accusations of politics of betrayal and corruption, Mr Kabwe, who is the Kigoma North MP, yesterday emerged to narrate his side of the story in what analysts say was an attempt to save his political career.

To Mr Zitto Kabwe, the youthful politician who joined the opposition party, Chadema, at the age of 16, his current political tribulations could be summed up as the struggle between pro-democracy and anti-democracy forces within the party.

Amid accusations of politics of betrayal and corruption, Mr Kabwe, who is the Kigoma North MP, yesterday emerged to narrate his side of the story in what analysts say was an attempt to save his political career.

“I will always stand with those fighting for democracy, but as a young politician for some time now there are good things that I have done and there are also mistakes that I have made,” he said.

Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam just two days after he was stripped of his titles within the party, Mr Kabwe attributed his ordeal to the revelation he made that nine parties, including Chadema, have failed to submit their financial accounts to the Controller and Auditor General (CAG ) for scrutiny.

Last month, Mr Kabwe, the chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), claimed that the parties did not submit audit reports accounting for a total of Sh67.7 billion in the past four years -- a requirement made by the Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2009.

He said the issue was strongly discussed during the opposition party’s Central Committee meeting which stripped him of all his party leadership position.

He said participants of the meeting argued that as the deputy secretary general, he ought to have secretly informed the Chadema of the move that was to be taken by the Parliamentary Committee, an act that they claimed embarrassed the party.

The argument, he said, was that failure to do so put Chadema in the same group with CCM, and he deserved severe punishment for he had shown in his report that he had ill motive against his own party.

Mr Kabwe told reporters that he explained to the central committee that the principle of good governance does not allow him as the committee chair to favour his party and remain strict to others.

“By so doing we would still be promoting some of the bad things we have always vowed to fight, and in such a situation national interests comes before party positions,” he said.

He clarified that he raised the issue of audit reports at various party meetings but his pleas fell in deaf ears, a situation that forced him to resign as signatory to party financial records.

But the outspoken legislator yesterday maintained that he was still a member of Chadema, a party he joined 21 years ago, he has struggled to build and a party that has politically built him