My second term in the office of Speaker, started with the 2000 general elections; when I happily sailed through the Speaker’s election completely unchallenged, neither from within the Ruling party, nor from the Opposition parties. In those pleasant circumstances, I invited the Speaker of the British House of Commons, Hon. Miss Betty Boothroyd, to attend my swearing-in ceremony in Dodoma, which she kindly accepted, and graciously attended. It was, indeed, a very auspicious start to my new term in office. But that is also when President Mkapa chose to display his extraordinary confidence in me; for he chose to hand over to me the name of his nominee for the Premiership, the day before voting day. And , when doing so, he decided to even explain how he had arrived at his choice. He said that in his experience, “the smooth running and success of Government business in Parliament, largely depends on the relationships between the Speaker, and the Prime Minister. If these are not cordial, Government business is bound to suffer. I have been observing your manifest close friendship with the outgoing Prime Minister, especially from the way you frequently socialize together in your Speaker’s Lounge. It is on that basis, that I have decided to re-appoint Fredrick Sumaye”.
My second term was generally devoted to the continuation of efforts to ensure the effective functioning of the multi-party Parliament. But there were also other developments which are worth putting on record.
More challenges of the multi-party Parliament.
Another serious challenge of the new multi-party Parliament was created by the 2000 general elections, which produced a negative “balance sheet” for the Opposition parties, because they obtained a combined strength of only 29 parliamentary seats, and this fell short of the minimum number of 30 MPs required for them to qualify to be allowed to form the Official Opposition in Parliament. I was of the settled view, that a multi-party Parliament always needs an Official Opposition for its proper and efficient functioning. Thus, I had to do something to rescue the situation. I therefore decided, and ruled, that the relevant Rules be amended, so as to reduce the minimum number required (for the opposition to qualify to form the Official Opposition), from 30 MPs, down to 20 MPs. This was done, which enabled CUF to form a coalition with UDP to establish the Official Opposition, this time with John Cheyo (MP) of UDP being the leader of the Opposition. But then, because CUF had disputed the Zanzibar Presidential election results, they decided (unreasonably) to demonstrate their dissatisfaction and anger, by ordering their members of both the Zanzibar House of Representatives, and those of the Union Parliament, to boycott all the sessions of these Houses respectively. Hence, ironically, John Cheyo was forced to function as leader of an absentee 17-strong CUF battalion!
MY SPIRITED DEFENCE OF PARLIAMENT IN A COURT OF APPEAL JUDGMENT EPISODE.
At the beginning of the year 2002, I became involved in a minor incident which however, unexpectedly, created what could be aptly described as “a storm in a tea cup”, and was totally unprecedented. It all started with an inoffensive and innocuous article I had written, for the purpose of explaining Parliament’s intention in passing a certain piece of legislation; which the Tanzania Court of Appeal had just nullified, on the ground that “Parliament had exceeded its legislative powers” in enacting that law.
My article was published in two local English language newspapers, the Daily News; and The African, on 26th February, 2002. This article was simply commenting on, and certainly not challenging or criticizing, the judgment which had been delivered by the Court of Appeal of Tanzania on 14th February, 2002, in the case of Julius Ishengoma Francis Nyanabo vs the Attorney General. In its judgment, the Court had held that section 112 (2) of the Elections Act, 1985; was unconstitutional. The provisions of that section had required the petitioner in an election petition to deposit in court, as security for costs, the sum of Tshs five million, without which his case could not proceed to hearing.
My motivation for writing the said article was certainly not to challenge the said court judgment. I was fully aware that court judgments can only be challenged by way of appeal to a higher court, if that is possible; but that was not possible in this particular case, because the judgment came from the Court of Appeal, which is the apex court in Tanzania. My enthusiasm in writing that article was purely academic. It was based on my desire to make a presentation of a piece of legal literature, largely for the digestion of the legal fraternity. For that purpose, I mainly focused on the new developments in the field of law, which had just been published in the authoritative “Latimer House Guidelines for the Commonwealth”. These guidelines were drawn up at a professional meeting of the “Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges’ Association; the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association; and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association”; which was held at Latimer House in the United Kingdom, from 15th to 19th June, 1998. In other words, that article was a purely intellectual and academic exercise; done in the knowledge and conviction that it would have no effect whatsoever on the relevant court judgment; which had even admitted that “bearing in mind the decline of the value of the shilling which has taken place since 1971 when these rules were made, it cannot be disputed that the sum of shs 500 hundred is now too little to serve any useful purpose in terms of providing security for costs; but it is not within the competence of this court, or of any other court for that matter, to amend that Rule”.
However, to my utter surprise and astonishment, the “learned brothers” of the Tanganyika Law Society, responded to my article by issuing a prepared statement to the press, ‘giving it a bad name’ and mischievously ‘hanging it’! In their statement, they falsely and mischievously claimed that my article was “an attack on the Judiciary by the Speaker” ; slavishly aping one malicious Kiswahili Newspaper, which had responded to my article, in its front page headline, with the mischievous wording of “MSEKWA ASHAMBULIA MAJAJI”; when that strange notion of “attacking the Judges” was not there at all in my absolutely innocuous article ! This eventually turned out to be no more than a ‘storm in a tea cup’. The full story of that whole episode is told in my book titled “The Story of the Tanzania Parliament” (Nyambari Nyangwine Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2012).
Fortunately for me, Parliament soon took advantage of the Court of Appeal’s admission in their judgment, that “the sum of shs 500 was put in place in 1971 is too little to serve the intended purpose”, and enacted a replacement legislation which, not only revived the requirement for a Tshs 5 miilion deposit, but enhanced that sum by making it payable “ for each and every count listed in the petition”. Great! I had won the battle against an unwarranted, oppressive harassment.
THE END OF MY TENURE AT THE SPEAKE’S OFFICE.
The 2000 general election is what ushered in the fourth phase Government of President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. The Presidential election of 2005 was the most comfortable ever for Chama cha Mapinduzi, in tems of election results; for the CCM candidate scored the most resounding victory ever since the reintroduction of the multi-party political electoral system in 1995, securing 80.2% of the total valid votes; and winning in 206 constituencies.
The end of my tenure at the Speaker’s Office.
As the end of my second term approached, I made a personal decision that I would not seek re-election for another term as Speaker; and announced this decision in an interview with the Government newspaper, the Daily News. I had told the Paper that I had greatly enjoyed a very rewarding 15 years guiding the affairs of Parliament from the Speaker’s Chair; plus the fact that I would be reaching the age of seventy years; and also that Parliament had already passed new legislation which provided very handsome retirement benefits to retired Speakers; I will be happy to retire and continue to enjoy these benefits. The Daily News made my statement front page ‘breaking news’ the next morning. But then, external influence stared appearing; urging me to accept “one final term, while the new young President Kikwete gets properly settled in his new responsibilities”. I was persuaded by this argument, and filled the requisite CCM election documents.
However, unknown to me and my friends and supporters, was the fact that there had emerged a serious struggle for power regarding the coveted position of Prime Minister; for which there were two powerful aspirants, Edward Lowassa and Samuel Sitta; and a settlement had to be reached on who would get that post. This information was revealed to me by the CCM Vice-Chairman, John Samuel Malecela (MP), after he was visited by Hon. Samuel Sitta (MP), who came to seek the Vice – Chairman’s valuable support and endorsement for his bid for the Speakership.
On Malecela’s inquiry why he had decided to vie for the Speakership when the incumbent Pius Msekwa had already indicated his intention to seek re-election; Samuel Sitta explained that “it is because the ‘hot’ contest for the Premiership has been amicably settled by President Kikwete, who has decided that Edward Lowassa will be awarded the Premiership, and I will be awarded the Speakership”. In view of that, he said, he had come “to seek the Vice-Chairman’s blessings and support in his bid for the Speakership”.
Hon Malecela told me that he had been greatly disturbed by this information; and that was why he wanted to share it with me at once. I too became equally disturbed, and I decided to verify the information with President Kikwete himself; for which I sought appointment, and was immediately granted audience.
But President Kikwete denied knowledge of any such underground pact. He had apparently been by-passed, so he quickly checked and found out that it was the work of a ‘King-makers’ cabal among his own friends within the CCM MPs. And, indeed, its existence was confirmed in the evening of the same day, at a pre-arranged grand reception held at State House to celebrate President Kikwete’s election victory; at which that cabal conducted a vigorous campaign among the MPS present there, for Samual Sitta’s election to the Speakership.
According to the CCM election Rules, it was by then too late for me to withdraw my candidature. But I refrained from wasting time doing any kind of campaigning; and just waited for the inevitable to happen, when I was declared the loser. However, that did not unduly disturb me, because I could now fall back on my handsome Speaker’s retirement benefits. And, in addition, President Kikwete very soon appointed me to the Chairmanship of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) Board of Directors; and a little later, he sponsored my election to the post of CCM Vice-Chairman, to replace veteran John Samuel Malecela. The inevitable pain of being made victim of a coup executed by that ‘King-makers’ cabal, was adequately relieved and compensated.
(Will continue next week)
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
Source: Daily News & Cde Msekwa Himself.
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