29 November 2017
As I drove on the Thika Superhighway
on the weekend before Uhuru Kenyatta’s inauguration on Tuesday, the road was
decorated with flags of different countries. At the foot-bridge next to
National Youth Service (NYS) Headquarters, the Tanzanian flag flew sublimely.
Other flags including the Nairobi City Council flag decorated the Thika
Superhighway that headed towards Kasarani, the venue of the inaguration. The
Office of the Government Spokesman in Tanzania, had on 24 November issued a
press statement saying that President John Magufuli would
attend Mr. Kenyatta’s swearing in on 28 November. Days before Mr. Kenyatta’s
inauguration, NASA leader Raila Odinga, a close friend to Mr. Magufuli flew
to Zanzibar, where it is reported
that the two met. Mr. Odinga’s trip to Zanzibar which came a few days after he
jetted back to Nairobi from an overseas trip sparked debated and controversy.
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| President Kenyatta, President Magufuli and NASA leader Raila Odinga |
On the inauguration day, Tanzania’s
State-House issued a press release saying that Vice President Mama Samia Suluhu
Hassan had arrived in Nairobi, where she was to represent
President Magufuli. Several Kenyan media quickly labeled this as a Magufuli
snob of the inauguration. Even before the official statement from the
Tanzanian government, there was speculation whether Magufuli would have
attended the swearing in. A few weeks back, Tanzania and Kenya had a frosty
diplomatic incident. The Tanzanian government had auctioned 1,000 cows that
belonged to Maasai pastoralists that had crossed into Tanzania for pasture.
Veterinarians in Tanzania earlier in the month of November burned over 6,000
chicks which had been illegally imported from Kenya. Following the auctioning
of the cows, President Magufuli made outrageous remarks saying
“Tanzania is not a grazing land for cattle from a neighboring country.” This
statement was not received well in Kenya. Tanzania-Kenya relations have in the
past been frosty and these two episodes in November can explain the relations.
Tanzania politics and the 2017 Kenyan Elections
President Magufuli and Mr. Odinga
are close friends since their days as ministers of public works in their
respectful countries. Tanzania’s main opposition party Chadema was known to be
close to Mr. Odinga’s party ODM. In the elections of 2007 and 2013, Chadema
provided campaign support to Mr. Odinga and his party. Tanzania’s ruling party
CCM, though not stated outright, has been friends with Kenya’s ruling parties –
KANU and Mr. Kenyatta’s party Jubilee. Tanzania’s former president Jakaya
Kikwete was seen as a close friend to the Kenyatta government. The defection of
Edward Lowassa from CCM to Chadema in 2015 saw Chadema rescind its support for
Mr. Odinga. Mr. Lowassa was a close friend to Mr. Kenyatta and Chadema’s
retraction from supporting Mr. Odinga and his party ODM was no brainer. As the
old saying goes “a friend of my enemy is my enemy” meant that Chadema had to
shift allegiances as a party and openly declared
support for Kenyatta’s reelection in 2017. CCM as a party remained silent
on this. Mr. Lowassa was invited by the Jubilee Party in a number of campaigns
in Maasai areas, where he campaigned for Kenyatta.
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| Tanzanian Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan with President Uhuru Kenyatta |
NASA Tallying Center in Tanzania?
During the presidential TV debate,
Mr. Odinga was asked to clarify the allegation that his coalition’s tallying center
was in Tanzania. During this debate skipped by Mr. Kenyatta, Odinga was evasive
and played down the allegation. This episode, though never clarified further
pointed to the closeness between Odinga and Magufuli. It was even speculated
that President Magufuli was offering some campaign logistical support to Mr.
Odinga. Outspoken Kenyan MP Moses Kuria even said
that Magufuli was conspiring with Raila Odinga to rig the elections. It was evident during the campaign season in
Kenya that Mr. Lowassa and Chadema were courting Mr. Kenyatta and his Jubilee Party
hoping that they would reciprocate in the 2020 elections in Tanzania.
Inauguration Day
After been sworn in, Mr. Kenyatta in
elaborate speech said that Kenya would treat citizens from the East African
community like
Kenyans and that “they will only need a national identification card to
travel, work, do business, own property, farm and even marry and settle in
Kenya.” As he made this pledge, the television cameras beamed at Uganda’s
president Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. If President Magufuli had
attended, then the television cameras would have focused on him. Tanzania has
been accused of dragging the integration process through restrictive policies.
As a Tanzanian who has grown up and lived in Kenya, this promised by Kenyatta
was a welcome one. “We only hope that Tanzania would reciprocate,” one of my
friends told me. The inauguration was attended by about 47 foreign delegations
and heads of states. At the luncheon at State House, the Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu met with the African leaders where they discussed various bilateral
and multilateral issues.
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| President Kenyatta attended Maguguli's inauguration in 2015 |
Speculating Magufuli’s absence
Tundu
Lissu in Hospital in Nairobi
Images of VP Samia Suluhu Hassan
visiting shot opposition MP Tundu Lissu at a Nairobi hospital were released on Tuesday
evening after the inaguration. She was, according to the reports conveying
greetings from President Magufuli. A Financial Times newspaper
report on the shooting of Tundu Lissu was also released on Tuesday. In the
report, Lissu blamed president Magufuli, where he alleges that it because of
his criticism of his government. Had President Magufuli attended the inauguration,
it was expected that he would have visited Lissu in hospital just like the Vice
President did. “Greet the president, tell him am thankful,” Lissu told Mama
Samia Suluhu. With the FT report, Magufuli’s meeting with Lissu would have been
extremely awkward.
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| VP Samia Suluhu visits MP Tundu Lissu |
Lowassa as a special guest
Mr. Lowassa just like former
President Kikwete were officially invited to the event. Kikwete through his
official Twitter
page congratulated Uhuru Kenyatta, but said he was not able to attend due
to prior engagement. Having shown support to Kenyatta, Lowassa savored the occasion.
He sat together with his wife Regina at the VIP dais smiling and relaxed –
maybe praying that Mr. Kenyatta will in 2020 attend his inauguration!
Magufuli had other ‘serious’
engagements
President Magufuli has recently
lamented that being a president is “frustrating.” As he spoke during his abrupt
visit at the port in Dar es Salaam, Magufuli decried the lack of will to fight
corruption in the country. Since assuming office in 2015, Magufuli has made a
handful of international travels with Ethiopia the furthest he has gone.
Magufuli may just be consumed by domestic obligations which have curtailed his
international travels. His party CCM had just won by a ‘landslide’ in the councilor
elections. Maybe he was savoring the ‘victory’ at home. You never know!
