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Tanzania: Cheyo - Don't Fete Suspects
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Mkinga Mkinga
An Opposition legislator, who chairs the Parliamentary Local Authorities Accounting Committee, Mr John Cheyo, yesterday criticised leaders who organised elaborate functions for politicians implicated in corruption scandals.
Mr Cheyo also urged members of the public to desist from involvement in what he termed the emerging trend to cheer former public officials implicated in unethical practices.
Mr Cheyo, who is the chairman of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Bariadi East MP, cited recent grand receptions accorded to former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and former Cabinet minister Andrew Chenge. Mr Cheyo was addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam.
He challenged the ruling party to come out and condemn Mr Lowassa and Mr Chenge for organising reception rallies ostensibly to make them appear as heroes.He said the two public officials resigned from their Cabinet posts owing to serious corruption claims levelled against them.
"But the two separately organised their constituents to cheer them up and to treat them as heroes when they went back to their districts," Mr Cheyo asserted, adding that this was bound to create the impression that they condoned corruption.
"President Jakaya Kikwete should also issue a strong warning to Government leaders implicated in graft scams against the habit which does not help in sensitising the public to fight the vice," added Mr Cheyo.
The Bariadi East MP said Mr Chenge who is the MP for the neighbouring constituency, allegedly used public vehicles during his recent home coming after resigning from the Cabinet over links to the radar kickback.
"Mr Chenge enjoyed a very warm welcome from CCM leaders and some Government officials as if he was a hero when he is alleged to have benefited from a kickback of about $1 million from the radar deal," he noted."He hired transport to ferry people all the way from Shinyanga to Mwanza and Kwimba and feasted them with ten bulls," he said, adding that money used for the event may have come from dubious sources.
Mr Chenge visited his Bariadi West constituency last Wednesday for the first time since he resigned from the Government last month following allegations that he had deposited $1 million in an offshore account.
He became the second former Government official to have been accorded a heroic reception in his home area shortly after falling from grace.
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Earlier this year, Mr Lowassa resigned as PM and was accorded a rousing welcomed in his Monduli constituency by thousands of people who expressed solidarity with him. He resigned after being implicated in the Richmond power scandal in which a bogus firm was awarded a $172.5 million contract for emergency power supply.
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