An arm to Blackmail Kikwete

An arm to Blackmail Kikwete

The new party CCJ could become a gathering point for MPs disillusioned with President Jakaya Kikwete but who do not want to join the opposition.

The party Chama cha Jamii (CCJ), created a few months ago by political newcomers Richard Kiyabo as chairman and Renatus Muhabhi as general secretary, would seem to have become merely a refuge for outgoing MPs who have not obtained the investiture of the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM, government party) for the general election in October 2010. But since the CCM MP Fred Mpendazoe begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, left the government party (and his seat in Parliament) to join the new movement at the end of March, another possibility has been developing: the CCJ could become a war machine for partisans of the anti-corruption fight wanting to apply pressure on President Jakaya Kikwete.

To be sure, Mpendazoe shares the opinion of several other CCM MPs who want the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and the MP Rostam Aziz to be brought to trial for corruption and Edward Hosea, the general director of the Prevention & Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) be sacked from his post (ION 1272). The former Speaker of the Assembly, Pius Msekwa and a few MPs (Harrison Mwakyembe, Anna Malecela, James Lembeli, Lucas Selelii etc.) are precisely on this wavelength. Since then, certain of them could be following Mpendazoe’s example.

Furthermore, the CCJ is also seen well by certain political veterans still following the lines of the late President Julius Nyerere, such as Joseph Butiku, the chairman of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the former Prime Minister Joseph Warioba. Such a banner could even field Salim Ahmed Salim, the former general secretary of the OAU, as a candidate in the presidential election.