Tag: GreatLakesNews

{The Vice-President of Total East Africa Javier Rielo has assured President John Magufuli that construction of the 1,410-kilometre oil pipeline from Lake Albert in Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania will be implemented as soon as possible since funds for execution of the mega project have been secured.}

Mr Rielo made the pledge in Dar es Salaam during a meeting with Dr Magufuli at the State House, according to a statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications.

The Total boss guaranteed to the president that his company had already secured the 4 million US dollars (about 8 trillion/-) required for the ambitious project in East Africa.

On his part, Dr Magufuli welcomed the venture and urged the company to fast-track its implementation. “It will be better to execute the venture in less than the scheduled completion time of three years to enable the people realise its benefits in the near future,” the statement quoted President Magufuli as saying.

On the same occasion, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Professor Sospeter Muhongo, said his ministry will accord necessary cooperation to enable smooth completion of the scheme.

Prof Muhongo went on to note that suitable geographical location of Tanga Port provided a perfect setting for the construction of the pipeline through Tanzania.

“Tanzania is as well likely to benefit from the pipeline since there are currently exploration work undergoing in Lake Tanganyika and Lake Eyasi. If we strike oil in those areas we will use the same pipeline to transport the resource,” he explained.

The envisaged 24-inch conduit is expected to transport 200,000 barrels of crude oil from oil fields around Lake Albert in Uganda to the Tanga Port. During the construction phase, the mega project is expected to create 1,500 direct and 20,000 indirect jobs.

Prior to the 17th East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit in Arusha, President Magufuli and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni met and discussed implementation of the scheme.

Uganda has so far discovered 6.5 billion barrels of the precious liquid along the Lake Albert basin. The first finding was made by Hardman Resources in 2006 which was later acquired by Tullow Oil.

At present, three companies own 33.3 per cent each of the oil fields and they include Total, Tullow Oil and CNOOC.

The companies plan to construct an oil refinery to process 60,000 barrels per day to cater for demand of petroleum products in East Africa while between 200,000 and 600,000 barrels will be transported in crude form through the pipelines for exports outside the EAC.

{Police in Dar es Salaam are holding 50 people allegedly linked to cases of stolen vehicles reported throughout the city, thanks to the intensified operation to stem an outbreak of car thefts within the country’s commercial city.}

Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, Simon Sirro told reporters in Dar es Salaam that the suspects were found in possession of 24 stolen vehicles.

He said the arrest facilitated by the ongoing crackdown at various areas in the city and the cars were found hidden in Lake Zone regions of Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga and Kagera.

According to Mr Sirro, the police last month arrested a taxi driver, Charles Simon (34), a resident of Mabibo in the city at Kimara in Kinondoni Municipality while transporting a stolen lorry to Mwanza Region.

“During initial interrogation, the suspect confessed to have been involved in various car theft incidents, mentioning another suspect as Isack Kahwa (35), a mechanic and resident of Ndala area in Shinyanga, who was found in possession of a motor vehicle of Toyota IST make with registration number T 428 CYV in his garage,” Mr Sirro explained. He said preliminary investigations have established that the car had been stolen at Tabata Segerea in Ilala Municipality. It belongs to one Mr Erick Senzotz.

The suspects confessed to have stolen and sold several cars, including a Toyota Noah with registration number T 948 DCP, which was impounded at Mbogwe-Masumbwe in Geita Region.

He said other cars impounded during the crackdown include a Toyota Hiace with registration number T 702 CMS (from Victor Malya, (38) and another Toyota Noah with registration number T 419 (from Adrian Jackson (45), both residents of Shinyanga. Mr Sirro said the suspects used fake keys to steal cars and selling them after changing their colour and plate number.

All the suspects will be taken to court after investigations are over. Meanwhile, 165 people have been arrested during a special operation to arrest sex workers and their customers in various parts of the city of Dar es Salaam.

The zonal police boss told reporters that the arrests began on March 7 when they arrested 153 prostitutes and 12 customers. According to him, 51 prostitutes and 12 customers have been arrested in Ilala Municipality, 22 prostitutes in Temeke and 76 prostitutes in Kinondoni.

“Prostitution is illegal and it is against our culture, customs and tradition. The business is also promoting crime in urban areas. The suspects will appear in court soon,” he said.

{KINSHASA: Kevin Lusongo has been on the streets since he was 11. He sleeps on a piece of cardboard in an unlit parking lot in a poor neighbourhood of Kinshasa, behind trucks he hopes can shield him from view.}

Some nights he’s unlucky. Recently police came looking for a stolen handbag and beat him up when they didn’t find it, said the boy, who’s now 14.

Then there are the older children.

“Often when you sleep, the others come and burn your feet with (flaming) plastic bags,” he said. “The oldest will see you and take your money. If you complain, they beat you severely.”

Kevin has the gaunt frame of a boy unused to nutritious meals since he was turned out by his family. He works odd jobs, begs and picks through trash to survive.

He is one of 25,000 street children in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, a number that has nearly doubled in a decade, according to 2014 figures from the U.N. children’s agency, with thousands more in the country’s other cities.

Congo is Africa’s top producer of copper and a mining boom has fuelled annual economic growth of 8 percent for five years, one of the highest rates in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But like many commodity-dependent African countries such as Angola and Nigeria, it has struggled to translate export-driven growth into broader social gains. It is still suffering the after-effects of a civil war in the east that ended in 2003 but left disease, displacement and inter-community violence in its wake.

Kinshasa to the west is groaning under one of the world’s fastest-growing urban populations. Outside the well-heeled city centre, there is little sign of prosperity, with most of its 11 million people crammed into rundown neighbourhoods where rubbish is piled in alleyways.

None are more vulnerable than the street children, who are known as “shegues”.

Denis Mabwa, who works for REEJER, a coalition of groups assisting street children, said charities like his find homes for about 3,000 children each year, while around 6,000 new children move in the opposite direction.

“There has been a reconstruction of large infrastructure. There is a stabilisation of the currency,” said Jean-Pierre Godding, director of the Ndako Ya Biso centre that works to reunite street children with their families.

“But in the big working-class neighbourhoods, no investment has yet been made to improve the infrastructure,” said Godding, citing routine flooding and frequent power blackouts. “The popular neighbourhoods have really been neglected.”

OVERCROWDING

The statistics on poverty paint a confusing picture.

The government says economic growth has helped the whole of society but that it wants more rapid progress. At a news conference in January, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo said 50,000 jobs were created in 2015 and poverty was declining.

The percentage of the population living below the national poverty line has dropped to 63 percent from over 70 percent since a civil war ended in 2003 and more children are completing primary school, the government says.

But the IMF says the annual rate of poverty reduction has hardly budged since the 1990s, when Congo – then called Zaire – was registering negative economic growth.

Among so-called world megacities of 10 million or more people, Kinshasa is expected to record the second-highest annual growth rate between 2014 and 2030 at 3.67 percent, according to a U.N. report, and residents say lack of government social provision is pushing many families towards financial ruin.

Ruth Tumba-Maseu, 15, said she fled her uncle’s house in 2014 after he beat her. She slept on the streets before being directed by a friend to a centre for girls affiliated with Ndako Ya Biso where she is now able to live full-time.

She said girls sleeping rough were often beaten and sexually abused. “Life in the street isn’t good for girls. The boys think that you are there for the taking.”

According to Unicef, girls comprised 26 percent of the population of street children in 2006 but now account for about 44 percent.

“The conditions are deteriorating,” said REEJER’s Mabwa. “You see terrible overcrowding. The children really can’t stay (at home).”

Child rights advocates fear street children could be used as pawns in street protests and get caught up in violence ahead of a presidential election due in November to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila.

Groups that help street children say they get no consistent government support.

The minister of gender, family and children, Lucie Kipele, told Reuters the government was very concerned by the issue of street children and was creating a committee to study it. However, she said she was not familiar with numbers showing the problem worsening and that funding of children’s groups was handled by multiple ministries.

EDUCATION

The war in eastern Congo that ended in 2003 killed millions of people, and since then armed groups have fought over mineral supplies. There was almost no fighting in Kinshasa, but many people fled west to the capital.

Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the country for decades until 1997 and provided only minimal social services to the population. Many citizens now view the government with suspicion and doubt its ability to improve their lives.

Norbert Toe, head of an IMF mission to Congo, said the mining boom had contributed little to overall welfare.

“Capital comes in, (the companies) exploit the natural resource, take it out as exports, and the profits get repatriated,” he said on the IMF website.

Relatively low taxes on the mining sector compared with countries such as Zambia constrain Congo’s annual spending to less than US$5 billion, limiting the government’s ability to spend on social sectors, he said.

Some international donors including Britain and the United States have also questioned the government’s spending priorities.

In unusually pointed remarks in Dec. 2015, British ambassador Graham Zebedee criticised the government for spending as much on the presidency, parliament and the prime minister’s office budgets as on primary, secondary and technical education.

The government allocated just 3.4 percent of its 2015 budget to the health sector, roughly the same amount it spent on parliament, according to the donors.

In response to written questions, Congo’s Budget Minister Michel Bongongo said that close to 30 percent of the government’s spending in 2014 went toward “improving the living conditions of the population”, including on health, education, electricity, drinking water and communal transport.

He said that government action, including urban infrastructure development, has benefited working-class neighbourhoods outside city centres. “Whether its infrastructure for schools or hospitals that are rehabilitated or constructed, or even roads, many are located in outlying areas,” he said.

Back on the streets, Kevin told how he started living rough more than three years ago when he was kicked out of his uncle’s house, where his mother was living, for lack of space.

For the past year he has spent his days at Ndako Ya Biso, which is funded by donors – where he receives schooling, food and medical care – before returning to the street at night.

He still dreams of being reunited with his mother.

“They’ll be talking to my mother,” he says, describing the imaginary scene at the centre. “I won’t know that they are speaking about it but then they’ll take me to the house.”

{Court starts at 10.14am with the Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana, addressing the judges and reiterating that he is representing the Attorney General, who is the third respondent. He also introduces lawyers representing the lecturers as Mr Mulema Mukasa, Mr David Ssempala and Mr Robert Kirunda.}

My lords, that’s for application Number Two. But my lords, for the respondents in the main petition, we are seeking your indulgence if it may please the court, to combine application Number Two and Three to save time. It is our considered view that the issues in the application are the same and it will save time.

Chief Justice (CJ): The issues will be the same but the grounds different, so we proceed with application Number Two.

Rukutana: Much obliged. My lords, for respondent Number One, we have Didas Nkurunziza, Peter Kabatsi, Mr Herbet Byenka and Mr Bruce Musinguzi. For the second respondent in the main application, Mr McDusman Kabega, Mr Enos Tumusiime, Mr Elison Karuhanga and Mr Oryem Okello. My lords, I am assisted by Mr Francis Atoke, the solicitor general, and Ms Patricia Mutesi, the principal state attorney.

CJ: The petitioner?

Rukutana: He is represented by Mr Mohammed Mbabazi, Mr Asuman Basalirwa, Michael Akampurira, Mr Elvis Twenda and Twinobusingye Severino. My lords, we are ready to proceed.

Didas Nkurunziza: My lords, we filed our authorities in court, I seek leave of this court to have our authorities availed to your lordships so they can be referred to in this application.

CJ: Of course, court would also like to refer to the authorities, so leave is granted. Each of the parties will be allowed 15 minutes to respond and then you will make a rejoinder. I hope everybody recognises the element of time. Normally, we give you 20 minutes.

Mulema Mukasa: My lord, for the record, all the nine applicants are in court. This is an application for leave of amicus curiea (request to join the petition as a third party), it is brought by notice of motion, supported by nine affidavits, two of which are the main ones.

This motion seeks two orders in the interest of time I won’t go into. The prayer is for the applicants to be admitted as amicus curiae in the petition, the grounds are also contained in the motion. There are a number of them from page two of the motion to page three, they are 11.

The affidavits mainly supporting the motion, the two I referred to, are sworn by Prof Oloka Onyango and Associate Prof Christopher Mbazira. At this juncture with leave of court, I pray to have the affidavit in the rejoinder which was filed this morning, for the fact that we were served at 8pm yesterday and we didn’t have time to rejoin.

That affidavit is sworn by Associate Prof Mbazira. My lords, as well there is a bound copy of additional authorities for the constraint of time we filed this morning and I pray this bound copy be admitted as part of the supporting evidence.

CJ: Go straight to the point.

Mukasa: I will go straight to the law that enables this application. Rule 15 of the presidential election petition 2001, we think is the one that enables us come before this court and make the application before you. Your lordships, we quoted section 98 of the Civil Procedure Act, Order 52 of the civil procedure rules, to evoke powers of this court to consider the orders the applicants are applying for.

We have sought help of the inherent powers of the Supreme Court, Rule 2, sub-rule 2, for invocation of the inherent powers of this court. There are no express rules governing amicus curiae.
When you look at the affidavits, it fleshes out the applicants’ expertise more so in paragraph one of the first and third applicants; affidavits but also additionally the affidavit in rejoinder by Prof Mbazira that has a more descriptive detail of their expertise in paragraph 5 and 6.

The thread that runs through the affidavits is that their expertise in human rights, good governance and constitutional law are concerned and this being a petition of a presidential election it has a nexus with those broad areas of law mentioned.

We also need to emphasise that these are Ugandans. I will go into the merits but I need to emphasise that this petition was brought under Article 104 of the Constitution. The mandate of this court is to make a due inquiry; we think the applicants and their expertise being Ugandans, we think these people can make a positive contribution in so far as due inquiry is concerned.

CJ: I must remind you that you have five minutes.
Mukasa: I will ask that my learned friend takes over.
Robert Kirunda: My lord the CJ, I am Robert Kirunda for the record. Amicus curiea as defined by Blacks Law Dictionary requires that one demonstrates a sufficient interest in the case. Your lordships, that is supported by Prof Oloka’s affidavit.

CJ: Go straight to validity of your amicus curiae application.
Kirunda: The authorities require one to be in position to make a cogent submission in court for the sole purpose of aiding court make a due inquiry. A number of questions have arisen in their minds not presently in the record.

{Police are investigating an incident in which a woman died after being detained at Mariguini Administration Police camp in South ‘B’, Nairobi.}

The woman, who developed complications in custody and later died while being treated, had spent nine hours in the cold at the police post on Tuesday night.

Mercy Nanjala had been detained at the AP camp after her friend, Emily Wasike, who has since disappeared, claimed she stole her phone.

Investigations revealed that when Nanjala was arrested, she said she had been given the handset by Ms Wasike and was ready to surrender it.

Two AP officers, the complainant and a village elder accompanied Nanjala to her house where the phone was found.

However, it did not have SIM and memory cards. The officers decided to detain her until she showed them where the cards were.

Makadara AP boss John Macharia Sunday admitted that Nanjala was kept at the camp.

She was detained from 8pm on Tuesday until 5am the following day when her condition deteriorated and her family was informed to get her.

“The complainant did not want the matter to go to court. At 5am, she developed complications and family members were called. She was taken to hospital and died later,” Mr Macharia said.

RESIDENTS DEMONSTRATE

On Saturday night, South B residents demonstrated and barricaded roads when they learnt of the woman’s death.

Some demanded to know why Nanjala was not treated immediately she fell ill.

The law only allows AP officers to arrest suspects but not investigate crimes.

Investigations have been launched to establish why the woman was not transferred to Industrial Area Police Station.

Nairobi County Police Commander Japheth Koome Sunday said investigations had been launched following claims that Nanjala was raped and assaulted while at the camp.

Officers at the camp denied the claims, saying a family member had told them that Nanjala had health complications.

However, the woman’s mother, Evalyne Nafula, said her daughter was in good health at the time of her arrest.

“We know she was assaulted. When her condition deteriorated, they called my younger daughter who is only 14 to the camp,” Ms Nafula said.

She said when her daughter was picked up from the police post, she was bleeding and appeared to have been sexually assaulted.

“We have not been able to get a full report from the hospital. We still do not know what reports say was the cause of my daughter’s death,” she said.

The family also wanted the police officers to explain why they were detaining the woman’s phone, whose SIM card had been removed by the complainant.

{Former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has filed video recordings he says contain evidence of presiding officers being instructed by their superiors to pre-tick ballot papers in favour of President Museveni during the February 18 election.}

The video recordings are part of the more than 60 additional affidavits of evidence Mbabazi filed in the Supreme Court to support his petition challenging Museveni’s election.
One of the affidavits was sworn by Mr Fred Amanyire, a resident of Ngogoli 1 village, Kyangwali Parish, Kyangwali Sub-county, Buhannuzi County, Hoima District.

In his affidavit, he states that he was appointed a presiding officer for Buhuka Primary School polling station in Kyangwali Sub-county.

He states that he received a telephone call from the Kyangwali Sub-county election supervisor, Mr Nelson Atumanya on February 15 inviting him for a meeting which would be presided over by a team from President Museveni’s office on the eve of elections [February 17].

He adds that indeed the meeting, involving him and other presiding officers, took place on the election eve.

He states that during the meeting, Mr Atumanya told the presiding officers that nobody from the President’s Office was going to meet them but the reason for the meeting was to inform them he had some instructions to communicate to them, which they were to observe the following day (on polling day).

Working on instructions
He says Mr Atumanya’s instructions included; to delay the election exercise to ensure that not more than half of the registered voters would be able to cast their votes in the prescribed time.

He further avers that in order to execute this move properly, they had to delay the voting process, verify the voters manually instead of scanning the voter’s verification slip with the bio-metric verification kit.

The other instructions to the presiding officers were; to close the voting exercise at exactly 4pm on the polling day and not to give or share any declaration forms with agents of the other candidates, and they were not allowed to seal any of the metallic polling boxes used in the polling exercise after the counting of the votes.

“Upon opening the polling metallic boxes, I was instructed by the said Nelson Atumanya (sub-county supervisor) to tick the ballot papers in favour of presidential candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni” reads part of Mr Amanyire’s affidavit filed in the Supreme Court.

“Due to the presence of the police and military forces in the area, I consequently ticked four booklets each comprised of 50 ballot papers in favour of candidate Yoweri Museveni.

I was able to make a video recording of the pre-ticking of the votes in favour of the presidential candidate Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. A copy of the video recording is here attached and marked C,” Mr Amanyire states in his affidavit in court.

He further contends that after the pre-ticking of the ballots in favour of Mr Museveni, he and other presiding officers were detained in the Kyangwali Sub-county office under the strict supervision of the same Atumanya.

To his affidavit, Mr Amanyire also attaches his appointment letter as the presiding officer of Buhuka Primary School polling station.

The evidence is part of the 65 additional affidavits that Mbabazi filed in the Supreme Court yesterday to bolster his evidence for the petition.

{A young man who defied the President’s security detail and asked for a job from the Head of State last month, is now on the government payroll.}

Mr Philemon Agwanda, 28, is an employee of the ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs.

Mr Agwanda said he was hired on the same week the media carried the story of how he braved the presidential security detail and gave President Uhuru Kenyatta his phone number.

“They placed me somewhere,” he told the Sunday Nation on phone.

Asked which assignment he had been given and where he had been posted, he replied, “Si sasa tu ikuwe kwa youth service hivo? Nina prefer ikuwe hivyo (Won’t you just let it be that I am in youth service? I prefer it that way).”

Pressed further, he said he is at the youth department. “I’m enjoying it. But you know there are things I wouldn’t wish to share at the moment,” said Mr Agwanda. “I thank the President for putting me somewhere.”

PRESIDENT’S ENCOUNTER

As Mr Kenyatta’s convoy crossed Kisumu’s Obunga slum on February 7, Mr Agwanda called out to the President at the top of his voice and caught his attention. To his surprise, Mr Kenyatta asked him to write down his phone number.

Four hours later, he received a call from State House. He then explained to Mr Kenyatta that he had not found a job since leaving university.

Later, Mr Agwanda was asked to send his CV to Ms Sicily Kariuki, the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs.

He said he travelled to Nairobi on a Thursday and that the next day he had his letter of employment.

Mr Agwanda’s is but a page in the book of stories on people who have used unorthodox means to catch the President’s attention.

BETHUEL MBUGUA

In the 1980s, Bethuel Mbugua pulled a similar, if not more daring, feat. He was then an eight-year-old boy in primary school and he wanted to talk to President Daniel arap Moi.

Young Mbugua had taken instructions from his father and, on a cue, he dashed to the dais where Mr Moi was seated.

The then Vice President Mwai Kibaki ordered the security personnel not to drag back the lad. A photo of Mbugua talking to Mr Moi was all the rage in the next day’s newspapers.

That was the moment Mbugua had his claim to fame, and henceforth the country came to know of a boy many considered a genius; who left many in awe for his aptitude in complex biological concepts.

Though it was later announced that he failed an IQ test, Mbugua would travel to the United States for studies and later got a master’s degree in public health.

There are also others who caught Mr Moi’s attention without having to do anything extraordinary. One of them is a teacher identified as Ibrahim Guyo who, like Mr Agwanda, got a taste of presidential benevolence in Kisumu.

While having lunch at an MP’s home in Nyahera, Kisumu, in the 1980s, Mr Moi saw Mr Guyo in the crowd. “Is that Ibrahim Guyo?” President Moi asked.

“Yes sir, I am,” a faint, shaking voice came from an ageing Mr Guyo in a grey suit as he stood up.

Mr Moi then told the gathering that he had taught in the same school with Mr Guyo 30 years earlier. He then promoted him to the next grade.

Still on catching Mr Moi’s eye, the former President was so moved by a young poetess in the 1980s that he offered to pay her fees.

JACQUELINE KAMONYA

Jacqueline Kamonya, then a pupil at Mukumu Primary School, tickled Mr Moi’s funny bone with her poem Sukumawiki Kipenzi, which she recited at State House Nairobi.

After her education, she worked with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation before crossing over to nursing. She is currently plying her trade at the United States.

Mr Moi’s successor Mwai Kibaki might not have made many such displays, but it will be remembered that his wife Lucy once paid school fees for a poor girl who had passed KCPE but could not afford to be in secondary school.

Stella Wanjiku had scored 413 out of 500 in KCPE examinations in 2010. Mrs Kibaki was touched by her story and paid her school fees for four years.

She would later scoop an A of 82 points from Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls High School in Nyeri. After KCSE, she got to meet Mrs Kibaki.

In a development related to national examinations, the name of President Kenyatta appeared in almost all news bulletins when the KCSE results were announced on March 3. A boy whose education the President had sponsored had scored a C+.

DANIEL OWIRA

Funny man Daniel Owira, who left Mr Kenyatta in stitches as he told the narrative Otonglo Time in 2014, was a centre of attention in the media, and he said he was happy with his mean grade – the minimum required to join university.

Related to Owira’s story is the case of Emily Wanjiru, who made laughter rain at the Sagana State Lodge in 2014 when she recited her poem Mvua Hii (This Rain).

Following Mr Kenyatta’s bliss on hearing the poem, a State House team delivered goodies for the girl, who was then aged six and who was a pupil at Gachororo Primary School in Kiambu County.

There is also the story of Dennis Ngaruiya, the 15-year-old who impressed Mr Kenyatta in October 2014 during Kenya Defence Forces Day celebrations at 3KR Barracks in Lanet, Nakuru.

His humour-packed poem, Our Father, left Mr Kenyatta and other guests laughing out loud. And that earned him a visit to State House and, subsequently, having his education sponsored by the President.

He sat the 2015 KCPE at Nakuru East Primary School and scored 212 marks out of 500. He is now a Form One student at Menengai High School. State House footed his Form One admission costs.

{Police in Pemba have launched a manhunt for arsonists who torched seven houses in incidents linked to political animosity ahead of the general election re-run here next Sunday.}

North Pemba Regional Police Commander (RPC), Mr Hassan Nassir, said the planned torching of houses in four different areas in the region was carried out at around 2am on Friday night. He said using petrol; the arsonists set fire on thatched houses at Kangagani, Micheweni and Gando.

In a separate incident, a building accommodating the CCM zealots’ branch ‘maskan’ at Tibirinzi was also torched. The latest incidents follow the burning of five houses or ‘barza’ in Pemba, owned by the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), which was reported to the police.

“Fortunately, we have not recorded any casualty in the incidents as all residents escaped unhurt. But the residents lost their properties. We ask whoever has got information that can lead us to the arrest of the suspects to come forward and report to us,” said Mr Nassir. He said that security has been beefed in Pemba, regarded as CUF’s stronghold.

According to the police and government leaders at district and regional levels, some unidentified group are carrying out campaign to ask all voters in Pemba not to turn up to the polling stations for voting.

In an effort to try to control emerging incidents of political acrimony, including arson, booing at nation leaders who visit Pemba and some traders denying to sell commodities to people believed to be pro-government, the regional commissioners (RCs) have threatened to arrest people behind the acts. North Pemba Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Omar Khamis Othman, has banned any assembly, particularly unauthorised meetings at night after 8pm.

He also said that people, who have been secretly issuing threats to discourage voters in the upcoming election, will be punished. Meanwhile, CUF has said that it will continue fighting ‘’for true democracy in Zanzibar even when out of government and isles House of Representatives)’’.

The party’s Deputy Secretary General, Mr Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, said here that they have decided to stay away from the government and Zanzibar House of Representatives because the whole process towards the March 20 polls is unconstitutional and undemocratic.

“We advise our genuine followers to remain indoors on March 20. Avoid violence. Let CCM continue with its elections and form the government alone. We will exercise greater diplomacy outside the government,” Mr Mazrui said.

He observed that ‘it will not be possible for CCM to maintain the Government of National Unity (GNU) because “no political party has the ability of getting at least 10 per cent of the presidential vote and at least a seat in the House to qualify for GNU. It is only CCM and CUF who have the capacity.”

Mr Mazrui argued, therefore, that without CUF in the race, a GNU will not be possible, blaming CCM and the Union government for ignoring the voice of the majority of Zanzibaris who support the opposition.

“We did not rig the nullified October elections as alleged by Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairman Jecha Salim Jecha. The elections were transparent, fair and free.

It is surprising and unfortunate that the polls were illegally nullified and our presidential candidate, Mr Seif Sharif Hamad, denied a chance to assume the presidency,” he said. He stressed that although many observers (both local and international) expressed their concern over the nullification, CUF did not rely on external pressure to help achieve its democratic goals.

Our diplomatic struggle only involves Zanzibaris.” ZEC nullified the elections last October, citing ‘massive fraud’ and set March 20 for fresh polls.