CCM supporters. The scandals have tainted the party’s image. PHOTO | FILE
By A JOINT REPORT, The EastAfrican
In Summary
The Kikwete administration
- The administration promised an end to corruption. On the matter of President Kikwete’s legacy UDSM’s Prof Kitila Mkumbo said he was mistakenly perceived as the icon of anti-corruption when he was vying for presidency for the first time in 2005.
- An administration marred by scandals. Prof Mkumbo said the Kikwete administration has been characterised by mega scandals, from embezzlement of public funds in 2012 to abuse of human rights and now the escrow account scandal. These scandals have claimed the jobs of several Cabinet ministers.
- An administration with record breaking Cabinet reshuffles. The sacking of Prof Tibaijuka has paved the way for a possible Cabinet reshuffle that would make President Kikwete’s government the administration with the highest number of reshuffles in 30 years.
An energy scandal that has led to the sacking of
one of Tanzania’s most celebrated diplomats, a resignation and the
suspension of two senior civil servants has left CCM in limbo and
tainted the legacy of President Jakaya Kiwete as Tanzania prepares for
the 2015 elections.
The scandal will have an impact on Prime Minister
Mizengo Pinda’s bid for the presidency in next year’s general election
after the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) linked him to
the scam. PAC has further threatened to move a motion to veto him in the
12th parliamentary sitting in January next year. The scandal also dims
the prospects of Anne Tibaijuka’s becoming Tanzania’s first female
president
Political scientists said Prof Tibaijuka as one of
the most successful women politicians was lately seen as a potential
compromise candidate for CCM, which has recently been dogged with
faction politics.
Her involvement in the scandal now means that she
is unlikely to even secure a party nomination to run for a parliamentary
seat in her constituency, which lost to the main opposition party
Chadema in the recently concluded local government elections.
Bishops in their Christmas sermons unanimously
called on President Kikwete to sack all the senior government officials
linked to the scandal and prosecute them as a way of reaffirming his
commitment to fight corruption.
Kitila Mkumbo, political commentator and head of
the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Dar es
Salaam, sees no political future for Prof Tibaijuka. He said returning
to activism, where she previously was before joining the UN and
politics, was the most likely move but integrity issues would now
undermine her.
Before her UN-Habitat career, Prof Tibaijuka had
formed a nationwide National Women’s Council of Tanzania (Bawata) in
1995, which was in the same year deregistered by the government. Bawata
challenged the ban for 14 years before the court ruled in favour of the
organisation in 2009.
Prof Tibaijuka became a minister after a
successful career as a UN-Habitat executive director. She vied for a
parliamentary position for Muleba South where she beat former Dar es
Salaam special zone police chief, Alfred Tibaigana and former minister
of state in the president’s Office- Good Governance, Wilson Masilingi.
The recent municipal and village elections in her
constituency, in which the main opposition party won 50 villages and the
ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) 38, were seen to indicate her
shrinking popularity at the grassroots. Sources see Prof Tibaijuka’s
waning fortunes as an opportunity for Mr Masilingi’s return as a
possible CCM candidate for 2015.
Parliament passed resolutions calling for
President Kikwete to sack Prof Tibaijuka, Energy and Minerals Minister
Sospeter Muhongo, Attorney-General Frederick Werema and Energy Permanent
Secretary Eliakim Maswi for their involvement in the scandal.
Still in office
The sacking of Prof Tibaijuka, suspension of Mr
Maswi and the resignation of Mr Werema leaves Prof Muhongo as the only
person implicated in the scandal who still holds an office. President
Kikwete said in his address early last week that he would take
disciplinary measures against him upon the conclusion of an ongoing
investigation.
Prof Muhongo, a high-profile geologist, was
appointed Minister for Energy and Minerals in 2012 after he was
nominated a CCM MP.
Benson Bana, a political scientist at the
University of Dar es Salaam, said that Prof Muhongo needs to be removed
at the earliest possible time “because his continued stay is making
matters worse with donors who withheld budget support from May this year
followed by the US, which said it wouldn’t be releasing any further
funds under the Millennium Challenge Account.”
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