{Tanzania’s Member of Parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Assembly, Alhaj Adam Omari Kimbisa, has demanded payment of 1bn/- from a weekly tabloid Dira ya Mtanzania for allegedly publishing a defamatory article against him.}
Through his advocate Samson Mbamba from Mbamba and Company Advocates, Mr Kimbisa, who is also Dodoma Regional Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Chairman, further demands a publication negating the story in the next issue of the same newspaper with an apology.
“We urge you to comply with what is required herein in the manner explained, else our instructions are to pursue a suit in a court of law,” reads part of the demand dated March 1, 2016, addressed to the Chief Editor and Managing Director with Dira ya Mtanzania Company Limited.
In the issue dated February 29-March 6, 2016, the tabloid published an article titled, “Uchafu wa Ombeni Sefue Ikulu, Ahusishwa na kampuni ya (China Railway Jianchang Engineering Company Limited) ARJE ya kichina, yumo Kimbisa, Dau, Baghdad na Kigogo wa CCM.”
“We have been instructed by our client to officially address you that the story was false, malicious and hence defamatory, as our said client is not connected and has no interest whatsoever in the alleged Chinese company,” the law firm stated in the demand letter.
They stated that before publication of the story, the renowned Tanzanian politician was never consulted for verification of the truth or otherwise of the published allegations.
Mr Kimbisa also served as the mayor of the city of Dar es Salaam from 2006 to 2010 as well as the General Secretary of the Red Cross of Tanzania. Before being elected as Dar es Salaam’s mayor, he has served in other government institutions, including Tanzanian’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The steps taken by EALA legislator comes just a day after the government ordered Dira ya Mtanzania to immediately apologize and correct the false allegations published in its two previous editions implicating the Chief Secretary (CS), Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, of various scandals.
The Director of Tanzania Information Services, Mr Assah Mwambene, said in Dar es Salaam that the tabloid had maliciously implicated the CS of involvement in scandalous decisions, adding that it should thus apologize to the government, him and the general public for the misleading articles.
He said that the tabloid’s 404 edition published on Monday carried a seditious article titled ‘Uchafu wa Ombeni Sefue Ikulu’ (Ombeni Sefue’s rot at State House), which was a continuation of another feature article published in a previous edition.
The article had accused the chief secretary of having influenced the appointment of the Medical Store Department (MSD) Director General, awarding of a tender to (CRJE) and another company dubbed UGG to build the University of Dodoma, Kigamboni Bridge and Dar es Salaam-Kigali railway line.
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