In sacking his ministers, JK has dealt with symptoms, clean rot still remains

BY EDITOR

22nd December 2013

Editorial Cartoon

Two days ago, President Jakaya Kikwete sacked four ministers whose portfolios were put on the spotlight for gross human rights abuses by government officials during implementation of an exercise dubbed “Operation Tokomeza.” 

 

Initially aimed at curbing poaching, it soon turned ugly following reported acts of torture and human rights abuses, graphically documented in a report of a Parliamentary Select Committee. As a result, the President dropped the four cabinet ministers  Ambassador Khamis Kagasheki (Tourism and Natural Resources);  Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi (Home Affairs); Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha (Defence); and Dr Mathayo David Mathayo (Livestock and Fisheries Development).

 

The President’s move to sack the four was communicated in Parliament by Premier Mizengo Peter Pinda during a hushed closing House session – which moved a motion to extend its sitting to yesterday, a day not usually set aside for Bunge business.

 

The probe report was tabled in the House last Friday, two months from the time the “Operation Tokomeza” was suspended and, as was widely anticipated, kicked quite a storm in its wake. 

 

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Lands, Natural Resources and Environment, Mr James Lembeli, told the House that his team had established that 19 people were killed during the highly disputed operation, 13 of them ordinary villagers and six of them members of the execution team.

 

It is obvious from Mr Lembeli’s report that the entire operation was so badly executed that even people and institutions were sidelined during which, we are told, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism gave out orders without involving even the minister, Ambassador Kagasheki. 

 

Then there was bribe taking by staff from the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa), Tanzania Forestry Services (TFS), the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority and police officers, all of whom the probe team  randomly accused of taking the lead, among other public servants.

 

We at The Guardian on Sunday commend Mr Lembeli and his team for a job well done; they did it without fear and favoured none, a marked departure from many of our past probe teams. 

 

The question remains: what then?

As dramatic as the sacking went, the government needs to take decisive measures to restore public confidence in its officials and institutions they lead. Already, many of our key institutions have had their public images put into serious doubt, if not outright ridicule.

 

The families and individuals who suffered at the hands of rogue government officials deserve not just justice but adequate relief and compensation for the wrongs meted against them by people who should have otherwise protected them and their property.

 

When some unruly police officers and other armed men and women in uniform kill and maim, the general public has a right to know what’s afoot and we believe that the government has the means to provide the answers.

 

The people need those answers now  in the form of decisive legal and other measures to deal with the rogues, not just empty rhetoric.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY