FORMER Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) Director General, Tido Mhando, yesterday appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam charged with five counts of abuse of position and occasioning loss of over 887m/- to his employer.
The Magistrate also ordered the veteran journalist to secure two reliable sureties, who signed a bond of 500m/- and was restricted to leave the country, unless he obtains a court permission.
The case was adjourned to February 23 for preliminary hearing. Investigations into the matter, according to the prosecution led by officials from the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Leonard Swai, Aneth Mavika, Pendo Temu and Dismas Muganyizi, have been completedThe prosecution alleges that Mhando committed the offences between June 16 and November 16, 2008 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Being an employee of TBC, he is alleged to have intentionally in the discharge of his functions abused his position as Director General by signing different agreements. Such agreements between the TBC and Channel 2 Group Corporation (BVI) related to joint venture for operating and broadcasting television programmes, digital terrestrial broadcasting, purchase, supply, instal transmission equipment and broadcast towers and operating broadcast infrastructure.
The prosecution told the court that Mhando signed the agreements in question without invitation of tenders, an act which was in violation of the provision of section 31 of the Public Procurement Act, No. 21 of 2004, thereby causing Channel 2 Group Corporation to obtain undue advantage. It is alleged further that within the same period in UAE, being an employee of TBC, as Director General, by his wilful acts, Mhando caused his employer to suffer pecuniary loss amounting to 887,122,219/19.
After expiry of his contract with TBC in 2010, Mhando joined Mwananchi Communications Limited as Managing Editor where he worked for about four years after which his employment service came to an end. In December 2014, he joined Azam Media Limited. Before joining TBC, Mhando was the Head of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Swahili Service.
With over 40 years experience in media and one of the best known voices in East Africa, Mhando is a well-known and highly respected figure in the broadcast industry across the region and internationally. Having started his career as a DJ with Radio Tanzania, he then joined the BBC in 1985 as its first Swahili Correspondent in Nairobi. A rapid rise through BBC saw him move to London in 1991 to work at the international radio headquarters at Bush House.
He became the first African Head of Swahili Service Over the years, he achieved a high level of respect from journalists in Swahili-speaking Africa for the depth and quality of his work, which has seen him reporting from the heart of key events in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. Mhando is one of few East African journalists to have interviewed current and former East and Central African presidents. They include DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, Mwai Kibaki before he became President of Kenya and his predecessor, Daniel Arap Moi.
Others are Rwandan Presidents Paster Bizimungu and Paul Kagame, Ugandan Presidents Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni and Zanzibar Presidents Salmin Amour and Amani Karume. In 1990, he was the first journalist to report the disappearance and eventual death of the then Kenyan foreign minister, Dr Robert Ouko and in January 2001, he was the last journalist to interview President Laurent Kabila of DR Congo.
Their long discussion took place just weeks before his assassination. Mhando has also reported for a number of broadcasting stations including Deutsche Welle, Voice of America (VOA) and Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), known at that time as the Voice of Kenya
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