Kenyan don cautions Tanzanians on the debate over new constitution

As the debate over the issue of unitary government seems to be the main subject of debate in a new constitution, a Kenyan academician has pleaded Members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) to widen up their mindset and think of other matters which would help create a conducive environment for national development. Professor Peter Kagwanja of the Nairobi based Africa Policy Institute (API) made the plea in an exclusive interview on  Tuesday last week in Dar es Salaam during a two-day conference on ‘Katiba Bora’ organized by  the Eastern and Southern African Universities Research Program (ESAURP) and attended by over 100 Academicians. Held at the turn of the week, the conference was convened to create a discussion platform over the details of the new constitution and a review of anticipated areas of interest for the CA members on the second draft of the constitution whose discussions starts officially next week in Dodoma. He said Tanzanians should not only focus their ideas on how many governments should they have as it is being reported everyday in newspapers, except have to think on how they could defend and benefit from the country’s natural resources such as minerals, gas and oil. However, he noted that, since Tanzania is endowed with rich underground resources among the East African countries, its people have to prevent it from being exploited for the betterment of their future life. He said Tanzanians should think of ideas which would ward off the existing disparities among themselves including challenges that face their everyday’s life. By focusing their mindsets on issues related with their social lives will open a brighter future for the coming generation, he added. The Professor, who has specialized in people’s life, has indeed put across various matters to be the most priority areas such as the access to social and economic services such as health, education, water and the increased rate of unemployment in the country as these are still a major challenge for many Tanzanians especially the rural people who suffers the most. Others he noted are formulation of basic strategies on how to alleviate poverty stricken situation among citizens of all walks of life, land issues on aspects of conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, gender equality, citizenship, President’s powers and many others that are among the most crucial matters that members should put emphasis on while discussing the draft. He said it is ample times to think of these issues first as they form the basic human material life through which people are involved in every economic and social development process. “If these are properly discussed and endorsed in the new constitution, there is a likelihood of averting unnecessary protests, conflicts as well as demonstrations in the country”, he said. The professor noted that, all these might not have a chance of discussions as most members seem to have driven their mindset on the issue of two or three tier government structure which he said should not threaten Tanzanians as what is important in this aspect is to solve the envisaged irregularities existing within the union government. Giving an example of his country (Kenya) he said that, the government had adopted the colonial government when came into power in 1963 and of late, it caused some political mishaps in the country an aspect that had decided to write their own after having discovered it had some problems. He described a three tier government structure for being too expensive to run as high ranking officials including the Presidents would require to enjoy the given privileges for having holding such top positions whereby they have to be paid for the recommended allowances from tax payers’ money. Despite the system has been recommended by the people as per the report of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC), it’s therefore upon the members to work to convince their people into looking at the issue more critically and compare it with the country’s economy, he affirmed. He said this issue needed enough time to be conducted slowly and gradually as it needs also the minds of intellectuals and people of high Calibri in every sector of development. Contributing his views, a delegate to the meeting, who is also an economist from the University of  Dar es Salaam, Prof Humphrey Moshi, said the CA should make sure that  equality between the two partners of the Union is given prominence in the  new constitution. He noted that at the moment, Zanzibar complains of inequalities in Union matters and Tanzania Mainland has also many complaints over the same matter due to ambiguities in the current constitution. The dean of the School of Law from the University of Dar es Salaam, who is also a Notary Public and Commissioner for Oaths, Prof Bonaventure Rutinwa, pointed out that the second draft constitution does not state which government will be overall responsible for citizens’ rights calling for the CA to ensure it specifies the matter. Moving across the border, the Executive Director of the South African based Institute for Democracy (IDA) Professor Derrick Marco who was among the invited academicians wanted Tanzania to respect the on-going constitutional review process so as to get a good and a comprehensive draft. He said constitutional meeting process must ensure the maximum participation of all the civil society groups in the country under the sprit of Public Private Partnership (PPP). However, he noted that empowerment of this process needs a joint participation into getting a good draft. Dr. George Kahangwa of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is on the view of the fact that, a one government structure was enough to end all the chaos in the current union government, bearing the fact that, Zanzibar is less powerful in terms of economy and thus depends entirely from Tanzania mainland. He said by having a single government would put Tanzanians together in terms of economic, social and political grounds as the sprit of the leaders was to unify a single state He clarified that, there should be a uniformity when it comes to the righteousness of the citizens basing on land acquisition in both Tanzania mainland and in Zanzibar. Unlike today the current constitution dopes not allow people from Tanzania mainland to own land in Zanzibar, a typical characteristic which shows elements of discrimination on the rights for citizens of both countries.