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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Tanzania's President Kikwete Has A Problem With Kenyans Living In His Country

In all the rhetoric we are being treated to about the proposed East African political federation a significant fact has stayed out of the news pages. And that is the fact that one partner, is very apprehensive about opening up her borders to the free movement of East Africans. That member is Tanzania.

Kenya and Uganda will open up their borders to free movement tomorrow, if given half a chance, but Tanzania is holding back everybody. And not without reason. Apart from the fact that it is easier for a Kenyan to obtain a work permit in the United States than it is for them to do so in Tanzania, there are recent developments that are of grave concern to the young government of President Jakaya Kikwete.

Since the beginning of this year Tanzania has been hit by a spate of violent crimes that is unprecedented in it's history and has included a number of high profile bank robberies. The authorities there and the press in general are not in doubt as to where the masterminds of these gruesome crimes come from (the mostly Swahili press keeps on using the phrase "criminal elements from a neighboring country").

It is now clear that as the war on crime in Kenya has intensified and as individuals and organizations have reacted by tightening security, those who live on crime are feeling the heat. And already there is evidence that many of them have gone regional (some hardened wanted criminals were recently arrested in Mozambique). It is quite likely that the source of heightened criminal activity in Tanzania is indeed Kenya.

The issue of crime is so worrying to the Tanzanian government that this blogger has reliably been informed that some Somali's were recently denied entry into Tanzania through the Namanga border. Immigration officials on the ground indicated that the new policy was to bar entry to persons of Somali origin. Everybody knows that these are the nice folks who engage in selling automatic weapons from a certain well known estate in Nairobi. But then not all Somalis are gunrunners just like not all Arabs are suicide bombers.

Genuine businesspersons and citizens of the three East African countries looking to benefit from the new East African initiative will obviously suffer the consequences of these new developments. Although criminals do not require work permits to operate and neither do they usually cross the border at designated border crossings, there is little doubt that free movement of the peoples of East Africa will be delayed for some time to come because of these recent developments.

5 comments:

  1. Great article...Me thinks the problem transcends just criminal activity. Tanzania has over the past few years been slow and kidogo resistant to the warming up to the concept of one East Africa. My guess is the fear of awesome Kenyans, with a knack to make a business killing out of the vast opportunities being "heavily slept" on there, will run and rush and totally dominate the place. I dont doubt that Kenyans can do that. But perhaps the TZ gava needs to meza mad chillpills and just be eazy abt this and spend more time trying to figure out how to benefit from this and stop reacting like pansies

    How myopic of them...when we all know that the wealth needs to be shared :-)

    Great to hear abt the Kenya - UG border being opened up!

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  2. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

    I wanted to send you an email but I wasn't able to find any email address at your blog. (By the way, interesting blog, but are in the torturing business or something, publishing 'live' photographs of mbuzi choma when some of us Kenyans are living in places where it can't be found?) LOL!

    The issue of Kenyans in Tanzania is quite hot right now so I'll devote tomorrow's posts to this burning issue. Please visit and tell other Kenyans who have never had a place to air their grieviances about what is going in Tz. It is time the world got to know the truth.

    Until 2moro...

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  3. Hi Blog

    Having stayed in Tz for the last 11 years I have noted with interest this issue of kenyans in TZ. Its obvious that there is open discrimination now. We are no longer free in most social places and funily this saying has come into play. I think it a high time the issue is addressed. The case of teachers, they are fired and sent home without pay. At the imigration offices if you pull out a blue passport, the officers will not be in a hurry to listen to you. Its gone to the roots now.
    However there is a saying that 'when you go to rome ......' Some of Kenyans are loud and openly offend the locals, what will we reap? I think inspite of all lets keep a profile that will not annoy the tz-ians
    And could we also unite? Many of us fight openly and even end up in the police stations, if there is no love between us how do we expect to be respected.
    If we unite and keep our art together we have nothing to fear. we are aggresive and work hard, something the locals might not like

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  4. Quoted from the GUARDIAN, a leading english newspaper in Tanzania.
    http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2005/09/09/49109.html

    East Africa Community will face a lot of challenges because the discussed agenda are made secret between the so-called committee. The people are not involved, and it is therefore an institution constituted by the people at the top.

    This will eventually become the idea of three presidents lacking roots in the spirit of the majority in the region.

    While Kenyans think that Tanzania fear Kenya’s economic strength in the region, the truth is that most Tanzanians do not accommodate the Federation in spirit.

    To many people it is just a political mask and to some it means so much to business tycoons who can understand and get direct benefit through calibrated endless discussion at Arusha.

    The problem with African leaders is that they never allow a national discussion to its own root. Instead, they do the discussions for the people, we thank them for their hard working, but the risk of such an attitude is decline of the well-established doctrine soon as the establisher die.

    Tanzania Trade and Industry Minister, Juma Ngasongwa and his Kenya counterpart Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi have for some time locked horns over issues of customs tariffs.

    In a recent Arusha conference, Dr. Kituyi complains about the way Tanzania was treating Kenyan businesses and goods.

    ’The country has caused unnecessary delays to Kenyan goods at the Namanga border, and the recent unjustified sackings of Kenyan chief executives from various organisations go against the spirit of EAC,’ said Dr Kituyi in a statement.

    Kenya, however, was accused of multiple charges at Mombasa port, which increased the cost of doing business for Tanzanian and Ugandan business people.

    The two countries agreed to intervene in the matter.

    Meanwhile, the lamentation peaks in the community, Tanzania has also denied claims by Kenya that it did not recognize the quality marks from bureau of standards of the other countries.

    It was agreed that EAC members should communicate with border stations to accept the three countries’ quality marks.

    We clearly need a coherent and ethical policy framework, which deals with immigration and its labour market impacts. As a good practice, policy making should be evidence based.

    We need to know, for example, whether the wages and conditions advertised when employers are seeking permits, are actually valid.

    We need to know whether the influx of people from Kenya and Uganda is greater or less than expected when we make decision to open our Labour Market.

    We cannot begin to get a grip on this situation unless we provide the means to do so.

    That is why having a properly resourced labour inspectorate operating within a legal environment that allows member states to do their jobs in either country is so essential.

    Such a legal environment does not yet exist in East Africa Community.

    It is not good to have high influx of unskilled labour migrants from other country who occupy the space unnecessarily that will not apply as the term ’free movement of labour’. Tanzania is curious about that, and it is because of saving the ’national interest’.

    Not every labour migrant across the region to Tanzania can be accommodated. For example, experience has shown that most Kenyans who are employed in Tanzania are in essential casual labour in hotels and tourism sector as tour guards where English language is what becomes essential with little computer skills.

    This is contrary to what Kenyans have been saying that they are feared in labour competition in the region. It is wrong and over exaggerated belief.

    However free the labour market may be, the migrants must not pretend to know more than Tanzanians, especially when you are permitted to work on the land and then you start exercising petty politics, making abusive comments or uttering remarks that do not sit well with culture of Tanzanians, oh !? the political guys will expel you immediately.

    That is what David Waweru experienced. If he were to be back in Tanzania, he would no doubt admit that Tanzanians are keen observers of what their visitors do or say.

    They do not entertain the hakuna matata slogan in the name of East Africa Community.

    SOURCE: Guardian

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