| Kisanja threatens EA unity |
| Monitor Team |
| KAMPALA
TANZANIA is getting increasingly apprehensive over Uganda's move to amend its Constitution and abolish presidential term limits, a move that could jeopardise harmony in the East African Community and make the attainment of a political federation a pipe dream. The national parliament in the political capital of Dodoma was last week asked to reconsider Tanzania's position on the community if it means partnering with Uganda. The neighbouring country's independent media have also started questioning Uganda's suitability as a regional economic partner and part of a future political union. Moshi Urban MP Philemon Ndesamburo said Tanzania should withdraw from the East African Community (EAC) to "protect its credibility" after a Bill that would give President Yoweri Museveni the green light to vie for athird elective term when his current mandate expires next year passed the first stage in the Ugandan Parliament last week. "Tanzania should not co-operate with an undemocratic country that wants to have a president for life," Ndesamburo charged. "We are respected the world over as a democratic country that upholds the principles of democracy and good governance. We should protect this honour at all costs even if it means quitting EAC." Ndesamburo, who made the call in his contribution to the 2005/2006 budget estimates for the Office of the President, was widely reported in the Tanzanian media, which have followed up the matter with several commentaries calling on President Museveni not to endanger the EAC by clinging onto power. Mkapas secret visit Mkapa travelled to Uganda earlier this year for a private meeting at which he is reported to have told Museveni to abandon the plans of amending the Constitution and retire at the end of his current and last term. Kikwete, a close friend of former First Deputy Prime Minister Eriya Kategaya, who fell out with Museveni over his opposition to the term limits amendment, has also privately expressed outrage at the Ugandan leadership's decision to amend the Constitution. Reports that the Tanzanians are developing cold feet over the East African political union because of Museveni's apparent bid to stay in power beyond his current constitutional mandate will be unsettling for the president, who has privately told confidants that one of the reasons why he wants to carry on is to achieve his long dream of East African federation. Museveni said in an interview with Kfm on Sunday that the East African political union was one of the things he had not accomplished in his last 19 years. But in Kampala, the State Minister for Regional Cooperation, Mr. Augustine Nshimye, said the East African federation was in the interest of the entire region and had no relationship with Uganda's move to lift presidential term limits. He said even if Uganda's Constitution is amended to remove term limits, Museveni might not be in power in 2013, when the political federation is expected to start. "If Museveni contests for another term, it has no harm on the federation, and should not be a cause for alarm to other East African countries," Nshimye said. He said when East Africans go for full political federation, there will be general elections to determine the head of the federation. Nshimye said, "Assuming the people of East Africa choose Museveni, what would be wrong with that?" Museveni studied at the University of Dar es Salaam and lived in Tanzania for many years, benefiting from the direct political tutelage of the country's first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Museveni was commander of one of the Ugandan fighting forces, Fronasa, that joined the Tanzanian army in its war to remove Idi Amin from October 1978 to April 1979. Although Nyerere backed the subsequent regime of Milton Obote, he finally switched to Museveni's side as he entered his official retirement. Nyereres favourable disposition towards Museveni generated respect for Uganda's new leader in the Tanzanian establishment and public. After Nyerere entrenched the two-term limit for presidency in their Constitution, Tanzanians regard any attempts by an African leader to remain longer than 10 years in power with disapproval. However the Tanzanians, who contributed a lot to Africa's liberation, have a lot to frown about on the continent: A referendum in Chad recently lifted term limits to allow President Idriss Deby to remain in power; Congo's lawmakers adjusted the Constitution to lower the minimum age for president to allow Joseph Kabila, the former president's son, to remain his father's successor; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has stuck on for a quarter of a century. |
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