Why cleric-cum-politician Gwajima is wrong on jabs

The Kawe Parliamentarian, Josephat Gwajima

Summary

• Gwajima has discouraged his followers from taking Covid-19 jabs as the government rolls out the vaccination programme countrywide

Dar es Salaam. The anti-Covid-19 vaccination sentiments by cleric-cum-politician Josephat Gwajima yesterday have provoked condemnation by people of different walks of life, with the ruling party CCM saying it was paying keen attention to the matter.
Addressing worshipers in Dar es Salaam at his Glory of Christ Tanzania Church on Sunday, Mr Gwajima spoke unprovoked, saying that the developed countries which spearheaded the vaccinations initiatives have ulterior motives for it.
He told his unwary followers that he was dedicating this whole week to preaching on the danger of the Covid-19 vaccinations.
“I have been to many countries. I have interacted with White people on many occasions and I can tell you, there are absolutely no free things from them.
“If White people give you something for free, be sure that they are expecting to get something in return,” said Mr Gwajima who took up politics during the reign of the late President John Magufuli - and was just as soon elected Member of Parliament for the Kawe constituency on the ruling party’s ticket.
“Are we that brainless? Doctors, professors: have you decided to put your brains in your pockets?”
He told his congregation that the vaccinations could kill people or turn them into zombies.
“People taking the vaccines risk becoming mentally challenged or monitored by computers from the West,” he said.
“I am talking with full awareness that there is a looming danger. I know there are bad boys who may try to harm me; people who don’t know that I cannot be harmed, thanks to the Grace of God,” he said - to much cheering by his followers.
With his remarks making news on social media, the ruling CCM issued a statement through its Ideology and Publicity secretary, Mr Shaka Hamdu Shaka, saying they were studying Gwajima’s misleading information.
“The party is currently observing the behaviors that go against the directives of the party’s chairman and President, Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan... Disciplinary action will be taken against him as per the party’s constitution,” he said.
The Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) also condemned the statements by Mr Gwajima, saying it would be quite proper for him to focus his energies on preaching what he is good at - and leave science to those who know about the subject.
“Who is he to question the vaccines’ chemical composition? I urge the legal authorities to take action against this preacher because he is misleading the public,” said the MAT president, Dr Shadrack Mwaibambe.
A health expert and medical doctor, Dr Elisha Osati, said it was time that the government met and discussed with different stakeholders such as religious leaders, business people and social groups regarding vaccinations for them to get full understanding of coronavirus vaccinations.
“He is not a medical doctor, so if he wants to be one he should go to medical school first. There are many vaccinations in the country. Has he ever asked how they work?” he said.
A number of politicians took to their social media pages, castigating Mr Gwajima for misleading the public through his followers.
Minister for Industry and Trade Prof Kitila Mkumbo took to his tweeter @kitilam, saying: “Tuchague sayansi” which is translated as “We must choose science” while Bumbuli MP and former Environment and Union Affairs minister, Mr January Makamba said Mr Gwajima’s remarks were unacceptable.
He tweeted: “Gwajima’s statement against vaccination and the government’s objectives in vaccinating the country is unacceptable. It is dangerous to mislead people who trust us in matters of which we have no expertise. The debate over vaccine safety is correct, but telling them that the government introduced vaccines to harm the public is not true”.

‘Second lie’
This is not the first time that Mr Gwajima is speaking somewhat unprofessionally regarding Covid-19 vaccinations.
Debating the 2021/22 budget for the Health ministry in Parliament in May this year, the Kawe MP (CCM) alleged that the vaccines had not been approved for use by the US Government’s Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
With his usual courageous tone, little could people know that he was actually discussing a topic that he was not an expert on until experts castigated him the following day.
A microbiologist from the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Daniel Maeda told Mwananchi in May that Mr Gwajima was misleading, saying the vaccines had been approved for use though there were still ongoing researches.

From left: Health minister Dorothy Gwajima, Foreign Affairs minister Liberata Mulamula and US ambassador to Tanzania Donald Wright receive the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam recently. The consignment consisted of slightly over a million doses of the vaccine donated by the US. PHOTO | FILE

According to the don, from the way he courageously spoke in Parliament, Mr Gwajima exhibited his ignorance of the process for approving vaccines in the US and Europe.
“CDC is in no way involved in approving vaccines. It is only involved in health of human beings just like the way we have NIMR [National Institute for Medical Research] in Tanzania,” he said.
He said it was actually FDA that was entrusted with the role of approving vaccines and that in its approval process, the agency had a provision for emergency vaccines. “It is not another institution as Mr Gwajima portrays,” he said in May.

Business as usual
Meanwhile, a survey by The Citizen established yesterday that the government’s newly released guidelines for combating the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic were not being observed in a number of locations.
A visit to a number of bus stations found out that most passengers in commuter buses, including daladalas and Udart buses were in crowded settings.
It was still business as usual as no one was denied access to a commuter due to a lack of a face mask as required under the guidelines.
Temeke resident Saimoni Mwandiri told The Citizen that if the government wanted to control the spread of coronavirus, it should allow more buses on the roads so that passengers were not forced to enter a fully-packed commuter bus.
“It is not that we are not aware about the virus. We are forced to enter crowded buses because the number of commuters who use public buses is bigger than the number of daladalas,” he said.
It was also observed that commuters at the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) were still crowded and were not following the preventative measures as advised by the government.
Moved by the situation, the Land Transport Regulation Authority (Latra) said yesterday that passengers using the Dar Rapid Transit (Dart) buses will from today not be allowed into the bus if they have not put on face masks.
“We have made an agreement with the police that a passenger who does not wear a face mask will not travel starting tomorrow [today].
“This is an enforcement that does not require arrests but commuters must choose to wear masks for them to travel or not to travel,” the Latra director for Road Transport, Mr Kahatano Johansen, said yesterday.
According to him, police officers will be stationed at Kimara, Moroco, Gerezani and Kivukoni terminals.
“We are also today (Tuesday 27) planning to have a meeting with Daladala owners to agree on one thing and to see how to transport passengers without crowding them,” he said.