HakiPensheni

By Editor

Editorial Cartoon.

Last week The Guardian on Sunday newspaper published a story in which rights groups ‘accused’ presidential aspirants of corruption. The groups questioned the legitimacy of sources of funds and the extravagant spending displayed by some CCM cadres seeking presidential nomination.

 

In their concerns the activists made their voices loud and clear, saying the situation was indeed chaotic and ‘smelling’ of corruption. They attributed the situation to lack of absence of a law that governs presidential nomination campaigns. 

 

Legal and Human Rights Centre ( LHRC) Executive Director clearly stated that absence of law has given aspirants a room to extravagantly spend money without the need for explanation about the sources.

 

Arguably, the rights groups have a point.  The 2015 presidential election has come with its unique style whereby presidential hopefuls go live on television and radio stations, including organising large public rallies, undertakings that are expensive. 

 

For instance, we are told that some TV stations charge Sh5 million minus Value Added Tax (VAT) and Production Cost to provide a live coverage to an event in Dar es Salaam Region per hour. If a candidate prefers a TV station to provide live coverage plus production then such a candidate should get prepared to cough up over ten million minus VAT per hour. Costs increase if such events are held out of Dar es Salaam Region.

 

There are candidates who paid for such services   and surprisingly enough such events last for several hours, leaving one to ask how they afforded to do that. 

 

There are candidates who have been quoted by several media outlets as having admitted to have received financial contributions from ‘friends’, something which may not  be bad. However, skepticism that arises from these contributions is that these people going by the name of ‘friends’ have never been identified nor the amount they contributed.

 

Failure to identify people who contribute money for presidential aspirants creates a room for the public to develop some kind of doubt with regard to their objectives in future in case any of their candidates succeeds to ascend to the highest political seat in the country.

 

Mwalimu Nyerere once told us to be afraid of people who seek power by spending huge chunks of cash. He simply warned us to ask ourselves  on how people who seek power by extravagantly spending money are likely to ensure they get it back and if they borrow it from somewhere how are they likely to refund it.

 

Tanzania is one of the developing countries some of whose leaders have been accused of stashing illegally acquired money in offshore bank accounts. Some of these individuals are believed and understood to be public leaders who are now either supporting some presidential aspirants through donations or eyeing for some elective posts.

 

It is sad to see leaders who stole from us coming back with the same money to seek powers so that they can steal more.  

 

Registrar of Political Parties Judge Francis Mutungi has warned candidates against this spending trend but it seems his hands are tied because at this preliminary stage of presidential nomination the law is silent. Corrupt leaders are going to kill this nation. Political parties must now wake up.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN