Jakaya Kikwete
Encyclopedia
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete is the 4th and current President of the United Republic of Tanzania
President of Tanzania
The President of the United Republic of Tanzania is the head of state and head of government of Tanzania. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Tanzania and is the commander-in-chief of the Tanzania People's Defence Force....

. Kikwete was born in Msoga
Msoga
Msoga is a village in the Coast Region, Bagamoyo District in Tanzania. It is located few kilometers north of Chalinze on the Dar es Salaam - Arusha road...

, Bagamoyo District
Bagamoyo District
Bagamoyo is one of the 6 districts of the Pwani Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the North by the Tanga Region, to the West by the Morogoro Region, to the East by the Indian Ocean and to the South by the Kibaha District. The district capitol is at Bagamoyo.According to the 2002 Tanzania...

, Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...

 in present day Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

. Kikwete was also the Chairperson of the African Union
Chairperson of the African Union
The African Union Chairman is chosen by the Assembly, which consists of the heads of state of member countries, to serve a 1-year term.- List of Chairmen:...

 from 31 January 2008 to 2 February 2009.

Leadership and political career

Graduating with a degree in economics in 1975, he opted for a low-paying job as an executive functionary/officer of the ruling Party (TANU later CCM). This gave him the opportunity to work at the grassroots in rural regions and districts of Tanzania.

Kikwete sharpened his leadership acumen in the military. He first had basic military training at Ruvu National Service Camp (1972) and later underwent a basic officers course at the famous Tanzania Military Academy at Monduli
Monduli
Monduli is one of the five districts of the Arusha Region of Tanzania. These include, Monduli, Ngorongoro, Karatu, Arumeru, and Arusha. It is located in the northeastern section of the country. It is bordered to the north by Kenya, to the east by the Kilimanjaro Region and Arumeru District, to the...

, Arusha
Arusha
Arusha is a city in northern Tanzania. It is the capital of the Arusha Region, which claims a population of 1,288,088, including 281,608 for the Arusha District . Arusha is surrounded by some of Africa's most famous landscapes and national parks...

. This is Tanzania’s top military training institution. On successful completion of the course, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1976. He also undertook Company Commander's Course in 1983 at the same academy. In his military career, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. From 1984 to 1986, Kikwete was Chief Political Instructor and Political Commissar at the Military Academy. He retired from the military as a lieutenant-colonel when political pluralism was reintroduced to Tanzania in 1992 when he chose to become a full time politician. Prior to that, he was permitted to be both in the military and political leadership.

In elective Party politics, Kikwete started shining in 1982 when he was overwhelmingly elected by the party (CCM) national congress to be a Member of the National Executive Committee. This is the highest policy and decision-making body of the party. He has won re-elections to the body every five years since then. Also, in 1997, he was elected a member of the party’s powerful 31-member Central Committee (CC). He is still a member of the Central Committee since he was reelected in 2002 for another term of 5 years.

As a party cadre, Kikwete moved from one position to another in the party ranks and from one location to another in the service of the party. When TANU
Tanu
Tanu may refer to:*Tanu, a Samoan prince who was allied with American and British forces during the Second Samoan Civil War*Tanu , an important historical village of the Haida people on the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada...

 and the Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi Party
Afro-Shirazi Party
The Afro-Shirazi Party was the union between the mostly Shiraz Party and the mostly African Afro Party in the island of Zanzibar. The formation of ASP led to the ouster of the Arabs from power with the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964. The party joined with the Tanganyika African National Union to...

 (ASP) merged to form CCM
Chama Cha Mapinduzi
The Chama cha Mapinduzi is the ruling political party of Tanzania.- History :The party was created February 5, 1977, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere as the merger of the Tanganyika African National Union , the then ruling party in Tanganyika, and the Afro-Shirazi Party , the then ruling...

 in 1977, Kikwete was moved to Zanzibar and assigned the task of setting-up the new party’s organisation and administration in the Islands. In 1980, he was moved to the Party’s Headquarters as Administrator of the Dar es Salaam Head Office and Head of the Defence and Security Department before moving again up-country – to regional and district party offices in Tabora Region (1981–84) and Nachingwea (1986–88) and Masasi District (1988) in the country’s southern regions of Lindi and Mtwara respectively. President Kikwete throve in the military and grassroots party political organisation, mobilisation and administration until 1988 when he was appointed to join the Central Government. The then President Ally Hassan Mwinyi appointed him Member of Parliament and, simultaneously, Deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals on November 7, 1988. In 1990 he was promoted to full Minister responsible for the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals. Later the same year he successfully contested for a parliamentary seat in his home constituency of Bagamoyo. He was reappointed Minister for Water, Energy and Minerals in the government formed after the elections.

In 1994, at 44, he became one of the youngest Finance Ministers in the history of Tanzania. At the Treasury, he established discipline in public finance management and accountability and, until today, he is still remembered for establishing cash budget system and revamping of revenue collection structures, methods and institutions, including preparations for the formation and eventual establishment of the Tanzania Revenue Authority.

In December 1995, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, being appointed by President Benjamin William Mkapaa of the third phase government. He held this post for ten years, until he was elected President of the United Republic of Tanzania in December 2005, hence becoming the country's longest serving foreign minister. During his tenure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tanzania played a significant role in bringing about peace in the Great Lakes region, particularly in Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...

 and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kikwete was also deeply involved in the process of rebuilding regional integration in East Africa. Specifically, several times, he was involved in a delicate process of establishing a Customs Union between the three countries of the East African Community
East African Community
The East African Community is an intergovernmental organisation comprising the five east African countries Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Pierre Nkurunziza, the President of the Republic of Burundi, is the current Chairman of the East African Community. The EAC was originally...

 (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), where, for quite some time, he was a Chairman of East Africa Community’s Council of Ministers. Introducing candidate Kikwete at a campaign rally in Dar es Salaam on 21 August 2005, former President Mkapa described him as a super-diplomat, in recognition of his role in the search for peace in neighboring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kikwete also participated in the initiation, and became a Co-Chair, of the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy
Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy
The Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy is a joint initiative of Finland and Tanzania that resulted from the Helsinki Conference of December 2002.-Phases:...

. On May 4, 2005, Kikwete emerged victorious among 11 CCM members who had sought the party’s nomination for Presidential candidacy in the general election. After a 14 December 2005 multiparty general election, he was declared a winner by the Electoral Commission on December 17, 2005 and was sworn-in as the Fourth President of the United Republic of Tanzania on 21 December 2005.

President Kikwete’s governing philosophy and political views are influenced by those of Julius Nyerere
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....

 whom the President was close to. So far Kikwete's government has received accolades across the country and in the donor community for fighting corruption, investing in people, particularly in education, and push for new investments.

However, President Kikwete's Government has proved failure in dealing with many issues which are effecting it's people and is now facing mass protests and demonstrations amid the price rise of the major commodities in the country together with the Power shortage Problem. The use of force to intimidate people has become the famous means of preventing protest in the country. In Arusha region at least two people were killed when the main Opposition party's follower went to street to boycott the mayoral election which kept in power the candidate from the ruling party. The Opposition Party CHADEMA was blaming the ruling party for violating the electoral rules.

Corruption and other controversies

The presidency of Mr Kikwete has been marked with wide range of corruption scandalsor ufisadi, some of which happened during the presidencies of his predesesors. Some of his supporters claim that to be a sign of transparency that was brought in by Mr Kikwete.
other cases like deaths have also been brought up like Tanzanian police killing people without guilt in Tanzanian streets and getting away with it.
Some of the leading known corruption scandals are:
Issue/ Event Date of Event Cost to the Nation Government Explanation
  • BAE Security Radar Scandal
1999 £28 million Tanzania government agreed to buy an over-priced radar, which at the moment it can not maintain. It came to be known later, more than a third of the total purchasing price was paid to a middleman of British citizenship to secure the contract. Also based on Interpol report, one government minister had siphoned more than £1m to his bank account in Jersey, UK. After much international legal actions, BAE was ordered by court to pay £30m to Tanzanian government.
  • EPA Scandal
  • 2005-2006 US$116 million The scandal consists of fraudulent payment of about TSh133 billion ($116 million) made by the Bank of Tanzania to 22 companies in the financial year 2005/06 involving the repayment of the country’s external debt. After the transactions became wildly known, the President sucked the Central Bank Governor and asked "kindly" those who looted the national treasury to return the money. A few month later, according to a government pronouncement, nearly half of the money (Tsh 60 billion) had “mysteriously” found its way back into State coffers. The Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police have refused to disclose the names, pleading for patience because the investigation is still going on. So far, not all monies have been returned, and the government has neither released the names of the culprits nor decided to take any legal actions against them.
  • Kiwira, Meremeta and other mining related scandals
  • 2000 - present Unknown Government officials in the previous administrations had taken advantage of the privatization policies, and privatized national mines to themselves. A good example is Kiwira mines, which were privatized to two individuals: the president and his minister for Energy and Natural Resources. The President of that time Mr. Benjamin Mkapa was rather "smart", registering his shares as AnBen Company; AnBen standing for first names of his wife Ann and himself Benjamin.
  • Richmond, Dowans Electricity Scandal
  • 2006 US$150 million (TSh172 billion) In 2006 Tanzania faced a serious crisis in electricity supply and, as an emergency measure Richmond was awarded a contract to supply generators to provide 100 megawatts at a cost of TShs 172 billion. The generators failed to arrive on time and when they did they did not work as required. The pipeline was never built and the generators were provided by another company. Under part of the contract however the government agreed to pay some $137,000 a day regardless of the amount of electricity provided. Opposition MP’s began to smell a rat and the House of Assembly set up a Select Committee to investigate the whole saga under the chairmanship of the ruling CCM party’s Kyela MP Dr Harrison Mwakyembe. The committee worked diligently and eventually came up with a 165- page report. Parliamentary findings showed the Prime Minister(Mizengo Pinda) to be involved in awarding the contract to non-existing US-based company, and the Prime Minister resigned. However, the Tanzanian government had to keep the contract and keep paying a non-existing company US$137,000 a day without any power being generated.


    Also President Kikwete has been blamed for electing his friends to the cabinet, a result of which he has no power to condemn them for their irresponsibility. The example of two consecutive Bomb blasts at Mbagala and Gongo la Mboto arm base respectively in 2009 and 2011 where the Head of army General Mwamunyange as well as the defense minister Mr. Mwinyi were in charge but they insisted that it wasn't their fault for the blast and denied to brief the country about the reason for the blasts. The President himself, kept praising his two official that they are working to secure a country something that raised anger among the victims of Blasts.

    Although in the past two years of Kikwete's presidency, a remarkable 1,500 new secondary schools have been built and a new 40,000-student science university has started being built in Dodoma
    Dodoma
    Dodoma , officially Dodoma Urban District, population 324,347 , is the national capital of Tanzania, and the capital of the Dodoma region. In 1973, plans were made to move the capital to Dodoma...

    , central Tanzania, the quality of these new schools are very poor, (no teachers, no desks etc.), and there is still a lot that needs to be done. But these successes have led the United States government to grant Tanzania US $698 million under the Millennium Challenge Account assistance program, the UK government US $500 million for education, and the New York based Africa-America Institute (AAI) to award Tanzania the Africa National Achievement Award in September 2007 in New York.

    President Kikwete launched a national campaign for voluntary HIV
    HIV
    Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

    /AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     testing in Dar es Salaam
    Dar es Salaam
    Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...

    . He and his wife Mama Salma Kikwete were the first to be tested.

    He was elected as Chairman of the African Union on January 31, 2008 at an AU summit in Addis Ababa. His first notable success as AU Chairman was to help bring a two month political crisis in Kenya to an end by brokering a power-sharing deal between Mwai Kibaki
    Mwai Kibaki
    Mwai Kibaki is the current and third President of the republic of Kenya.Kibaki was previously Vice President of Kenya for ten years from 1978–1988 and also held cabinet ministerial positions, including a widely acclaimed stint as Minister for Finance , Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for...

     and Raila Odinga
    Raila Odinga
    Raila Amollo Odinga , also popularly known to Kenyans as Agwambo, is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as the Prime Minister of Kenya in a coalition government. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Langata since 1992, was Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and was Minister of Roads,...

    . He was also one of the first to criticise Robert Mugabe
    Robert Mugabe
    Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

    's regime at the most recent summit.

    Honours

    Honour Awarded by Date of Award Reason for Award
    • Honorary
      Honorary degree
      An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

       Doctor of Law
      Doctor of law
      Doctor of Law or Doctor of Laws is a doctoral degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country, and includes degrees such as the LL.D., Ph.D., J.D., J.S.D., and Dr. iur.-Argentina:...

    Rev. Dennis Dease, University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
    University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
    The University of St. Thomas is a private, Catholic, liberal arts, and archdiocesan university located in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States...

    September 2006 in recognition of his dedicated public service
  • Doctor of Humane Letters
    Doctor of Humane Letters
    The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...

  • Dr Harris Mule, Kenyatta University
    Kenyatta University
    Kenyatta University, located in Nairobi, Kenya is the second largest public university in the country . The University is located in Kahawa, about from Nairobi's city centre, along the Nairobi-Thika road.- History :...

    19 December 2008 in recognition of his great effort in leadership excellence, peace initiative and support for education
  • Honorary doctorate in the science field of International Relations
  • Prof Şerif Ali Tekalan, Fatih University
    Fatih University
    Fatih University is a private university mainly located in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Turkey. The university was established in 1996 by the Turkish Association of Health and Medical Treatment...

    February 2010 for promoting international relations between Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

     and Tanzania
    Tanzania
    The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

  • Honorary degree of Public Health
  • Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
    Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
    Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences is the only public university for health sciences in Tanzania.-History:The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences is a successor to the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences , which was a constituent college of the University...

    11 December 2010 for his efforts in modernizing the health sector and ensuring higher learning opportunities for health workers
  • Doctor of laws Honoris causa
  • Ambassador Fulgence Kazaura, University of Dar es Salaam
    University of Dar es Salaam
    The University of Dar es Salaam is a university in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. The university was born out of a decision taken in 1970 to split the then University of East Africa into three independent universities; Makerere University , University of Nairobi and University of Dar es...

    October 2011 at the 41st graduation ceremony of the University of Dar es Salaam

    See also

    • Tanzanian elections, 2005
      Tanzanian elections, 2005
      Tanzania held presidential and parliamentary elections on 14 December 2005. Originally scheduled for 30 October, the elections were postponed due to the death of a vice-presidential candidate. These polls were the third since the country returned to multiparty rule in 1992...

    • Tanzania People's Defence Force
      Tanzania People's Defence Force
      The Tanzania Peoples’ Defence Force was set up in September 1964. From its inception, it was ingrained in the troops that they were a people’s force under civilian control. They were always reminded of their difference from the colonial armed forces...

    • Tanzania
      Tanzania
      The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

    • Zanzibar
      Zanzibar
      Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

    • History of Tanzania
      History of Tanzania
      The East African nation of Tanzania dates formally only from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919, when, under the League...

    • Tokyo International Conference on African Development
      Tokyo International Conference on African Development
      is a conference held every five years in Tokyo, Japan, with the objective "to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners." Japan is a co-host of these conferences. Other co-organizers of TICAD are the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa...

       (TICAD-IV), 2008.

    External links

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