No hope for corruption to be wiped out on ruling Party

Dar es Salaam.The newly appointed secretary-general for Chama Cha Mapinduzi, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, is confident that the new leadership can successfully restore ethics and discipline within the ruling party. He, however, called on CCM members and the society at large to give the new line-up more time to carry out the essential groundwork.

Infighting, corruption and abuse of office are a chronic malaise facing CCM at the moment, but Mr Kinana says he has no doubt about the ability of the team to clean up the party once and for all.

“Saying is one thing and putting things to action is quite another,” said Mr Kinana, explaining that the success of his team would depend on the goodwill and programme of action which the ruling party’s higher organs would devise.
The re-elected CCM national chairman, President Jakaya Kikwete, unveiled the new CCM secretariat line-up at ‘White House’ in Dodoma yesterday.

Closing the national congress meeting in Dodoma at around midnight on Tuesday, the national chairman criticised ruling party’s cadres for taking opposition attacks on CCM casually. “Opposition political parties have been very aggressive and most of they have been telling lies about CCM and its government and our cadres remained silent,” he said, adding:

“They (CCM cadres) often hide themselves in the shadow and ask the government to intervene instead of hitting back by countering Opposition lies and baring positive image of CCM and the government,” Mr Kikwete observed.
President Kikwete said political issues ought to be dealt with politically; CCM should not lay back and expect the police force to sort out issues for them.

This caution was seen as a veiled reference to the several bloody skirmishes that pitted the police and Chadema followers, the latest of which took place in Nyololo in Iringa Region, leading to the brutal killing by police, a journalist in the course of work.
Showering praises on the newly elected CCM vice chairman (Mainland), Mr Philip Mangula, Mr Kinana said the soft-spoken party stalwart had a track record in local politics. “He was actually my mentor at Kivukoni College,” he said.

As chairman of the CCM’s Ethics and Disciplinary Committee with the all the party’s wing in his ambit, he said, Mr Mangula would greatly help in restoring ethics and discipline within the party.“Dr Asha-Rose Migiro’s vast experience and contacts gathered from her job as UN deputy secretary general will be an added advantage to the team,” Mr Kinana said.

Dr Migiro has been appointed member of the CCM secretariat responsible for Foreign Affairs. Other members of the secretariat with their dockets in brackets are Mr Mwigulu Nchemba (deputy secretary general for Tanzania Mainland) and Mr Vuai Ali Vuai (deputy secretary general for Zanzibar).Others are: Ms Zakia Meghji (Economy and Finance), Mohamed Seif Khatib (Organisation) and Mr Nape Nnauye (Ideology and Publicity).

Mr Kinana said the expanded size of the CCM National Executive Committee (NEC) from 40 members to 300 had given the team sufficient strength to supervise implementation of resolutions made by the ruling party’s congress.
Unconfirmed reports have it that Mr Kinana appointment was one of the conditions Mr Mangula gave to Mr Kikwete before accepting the vice chairman post.

Mr Mangula told the President that he wanted to work with a strong secretary general like Mr Kinana to pave the way for victory ahead of the civic polls in 2014 and the General Election the following year.Mr Kinana is a proven political strategist, having served as a very able CCM campaign director since the exit of Ali Hassan Mwinyi administration.

He also served as Speaker of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) before becoming the campaign director of Mr Kikwete in the 2010 contest.

The retired colonel, who served as foreign minister and later Defence minister under President Mwinyi, also served as Arusha Urban MP between 1990 and 1995.Born in the Arusha Region in October 1951, Kinana did his primary and secondary studies in Arusha before going to Old Moshi Secondary School for his A-Levels.

He was one of those responsible for the TANU party youth organisation in the Korogwe District between 1971 and 1972, before following the teachings of the Kivukoni Ideological College in 1973. From 1974 to 1985, he undertook a long career as a political commissar in several military schools, and from 1984 to 1985, at the 20th division of the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF).