With Warioba team joining Ukawa to boycott referendum, a crisis is brewing

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By JENERALI ULIMWENGu

In Summary

• If “the top” tells them to beat up those who oppose the referendum, Tanzanians will not read about the beatings in The EastAfrican, which has been told not to circulate in the country, because it’s not registered here.

There’s no knowing what is going on in the minds of our rulers, but what’s clear is that governance by............................
crisis is still the order of the day. Yes, we have chosen crisis as our way of going forward rather than going forward until we encounter a crisis.

This time again, President Jakaya Kikwete, rather than doing the done thing by getting rid of a cumbersome minister who’d become a liability to his government, waited until the eleventh hour before a meeting of parliament, which would have asked embarrassing questions, to let him go. Why?

Of course, Sospeter Muhongo, until recently the embattled minister embroiled in the Tegeta Escrow Account Scandal, is a world-renowned scientist whose knowledge in matters paleontological is highly regarded in related circles; it is said, in fact, that the president had to coax an unconvinced Muhongo to come and help him with the ministry dealing with mining when the then minster had been disgraced and forced to resign.

This apparently gave Muhongo a certain hold on the president, for you don’t easily tell a man to “beat it” when it’s you who “begged” him to come rescue your government when you were in dire need. So it is whispered in the grapevine, and that is supposedly the reason why the president, even as he was “asking” Anna Tibaijuka to leave, still kept Muhongo as “kiporo,” the leftovers that one eats on the morrow, literally, and no pun intended here.

So now, Muhongo is gone — we are told he resigned — and already has got a new international job, but his departure has not exorcised the escrow demons, as the crusading parliamentarians as well as the donor community are insisting more heads have to roll and more resolute action has to be taken.

Before we can step out of the woods with that one, opposition parties, recently buoyed by signal victories in civic elections and united in a “People’s Constitution” (Ukawa) campaign, are now calling for the people to boycott the referendum on a constitutional draft that is supported by President Kikwete and is deemed to be a ruling-party project. It looks like every time Ukawa met with the president, the two sides talked at cross-purposes.

At issue is the draft constitution written by the Constituent Assembly (CA), which ignored the so-called Warioba draft drawn up by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), a commission appointed by the president himself. A case of a principal disowning his own agent in favour of a more seductive latter arrival.

And now, the defunct CRC, or at least the most influential members thereof, have publicly and vehemently decided to throw their weight behind the opposition parties (Ukawa) in calling for a boycott of the referendum. They accuse Kikwete of flip-flopping.

This means that Joseph Warioba and his team, who were initially sent by Kikwete to draft a constitution, will now join Ukawa to campaign for a boycott of the referendum, and in this they will confront Kikwete and his followers, who will be campaigning for a “Yes” vote for the proposed constitution. So go figure!

If all this sounds convoluted, it’s because it is, and if it looks like it could lead to a serious crisis, it’s because it could.

Already the police are getting jittery and heavy-handed. A few days ago, they attacked a leader of the opposition conducting a march, beat him up and teargassed the crowd, which included children.

The occasion was the anniversary of the killings in Unguja and Pemba in 2001. The cops have said they had had instructions “from the top.” They have been giving this explanation every time they have brutalised citizens. Who is “the top”?

If “the top” tells them to beat up those who oppose the referendum, Tanzanians will not read about the beatings in The EastAfrican, which has been told not to circulate in the country, because it’s not registered here.

Like the Economist? Financial Times? African Business? Mail & Guardian? Ha ha!

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com