Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Friday, October 23, 2021.
USAID gives American consulting firm over 57billion to support water services in Tanzania
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a California-based consulting and engineering services firm Tetra Tech a five-year contract worth $25 million, which is an equivalent of Sh57 Billion, to strengthen water and sanitation services in Tanzania.
According to a statement released on Friday, water scarcity is causing the overexploitation of the few resources available in Tanzania, resulting in the deterioration of infrastructure in urban and rural areas. The goal of the fund is to therefore mitigate the effects arising from this process.
Tetra Tech will be responsible for assisting the government of Tanzania in managing its water supply infrastructure, while at the same time promoting the development of sanitation and hygiene services.
“We will engage private sector companies to drive innovation and investment to increase the availability of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) products and services throughout Tanzania,” the statement quoted Tetra Tech as saying.
As part of its Vision 2025, the Tanzanian government has committed to increasing access to improved sanitation facilities to 95 per cent by 2025. The second five-year development plan (FYDP II) also sets a target of 85 per cent access to improved sanitation in rural areas.
Remembering Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad
On October 22, 2021, former Zanzibar First Vice President and political reformist Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad would have turned 79 years old since he was born on October 22, 1943.
In his posthumous birthday wish to Mr Hamad, political analyst and researcher Nicodemus Minde remembers Mr Hamad, a man who has been described as the icon of Tanzania’s opposition politics, who died on February 17, 2021, of COVID-19 complications.
Minde, who has researched extensively on the contradictions of memory of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union, Zanzibari nationalism and the reconciliation processes in Zanzibar, argues that Mr Hamad represented the political contests within his home country of Zanzibar, calling him “the manifest” of the competing narratives of Zanzibari political history.
He writes that Mr Hamad will remain a towering figure in Zanzibar politics, saying that Zanzibar should find ways to honour his legacy for his contributions in the reconciliation processes and unfettered commitments to Zanzibari politics.
You can read Minde’s full commentary on Mr Hamad’s life, titled Remembering Seif Sharif Hamad, here.
Zanzibar in protracted struggle against homicides
A total of 208 homicide incidents were reported in Zanzibar between 2015 and 2020, according to the Zanzibar’s Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS).
While this number may be seen as not alarming, the pace with which law enforcement organs in the semi-autonomous archipelago has been able to bring the perpetrators of these incidents to justice has been anything but satisfactory.
Our Zanzibar-based journalist Najjat Omar shows this in her latest dispatch from the isles, titled Jinamizi la Mauaji Holela Linavyoitesa Zanzibar which loosely translates to How Homicide Nightmare Haunts Zanzibar.
Many families which have lost their loved ones to these incidents opened up to The Chanzo, sharing their disappointment over the Zanzibar justice system which they claim have failed them to get justice for their fallen brothers, sisters, and in-laws.
Many of the people affected by these incidents expressed their dismay at the fact that some of the people accused to have been responsible for these incidents roam free in the streets, without even being summoned to police stations for questioning.
Dr Mzuri Issa is the director for the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) in Zanzibar, who blames the continuous occurrence of these incidents on the failure of Zanzibar’s law enforcement organs to timely complete investigations into cases of these kinds and prosecute the perpetrators.
Asked why this has been the case, Zanzibar’s Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Zuberi Chembela told The Chanzo that it has taken authorities in the isles so much time to bring the perpetrators of these incidents to justice because investigations, given the nature of the cases, take long time to complete.
You can read Najjat’s full story in Swahili here
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