By Marc Nkwame , The Guardian
VETERAN journalist, Zephania Ubwani who passed away last Saturday is expected to be laid to rest at his home village of Simbay, at the foot of Mount Hanang in Hanang District, Manyara Region, this week.
Family spokesperson, Wilhelm Gidabuday who is also an international long-distance running athlete, explained here that arrangements to that effect are still ongoing and thus the exact burial date for the seasoned journalist is yet to be finalized.
Until his death, Zephania Ubwani, born in 1953, was writing for The Citizen newspaper, which is an English publication of Mwananchi Communications, the Tanzanian division of the Nation Media Group (NMG).
Ubwani who died aged 71 years, was also a regular contributor to the East African Weekly, Daily Nation of Kenya as well as Daily Monitor of Uganda.
“Ubwani has left behind a wife and four children,” said Gidabuday, adding that all his children are males.
Before joining Mwananchi Communications in 2004, Zephania Ubwani was a freelance journalist specializing in mostly environmental issues, with many of his articles appearing in The Guardian as well as the Daily News publications in Tanzania.
Previously Ubwani also worked for the state-owned National Information Corporation (SHIHATA).
He also used to correspond for a series of other foreign publications abroad. Ubwani was so experienced in the field that fellow scribes in Arusha defined him as a ‘walking encyclopaedia.’
In recent years, Ubwani has decided to specialize in reporting on East African Community (EAC) as well as regional integration matters.
Ubwani is described as a journalist who lived his entire life as a scribe and surprisingly he died with a pen in his hand.
As it happens, the veteran scribe was undertaking his daily reporting responsibilities, on Saturday, April 6, 2024, during a scientific conference at the Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha when he started feeling unwell.
He reportedly sat to rest in the Hotel’s garden, after feeling exhausted, before it was decided that the journalist needed medical attention.
Asiraji Mvungi a reporter for the Independence Television (ITV) is among the people who helped to take the late Ubwani to the Arusha International Conference Center (AICC) hospital which is located just across the road from Kibo Palace Hotel.
It was reported later that the journalist passed away while undergoing treatment at the medical center
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