Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Monday, October 10, 2022.
‘We shouldn’t share our poverty’: Will Ruto’s visit improve TZ-Kenya relations?
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday urged her Kenyan counterpart William Ruto that Tanzania and its East African neighbour should not share the poverty of their two respective countries, stressing the need for improving development cooperation.
Ruto, who was sworn in as the fifth President of Kenya on September 13, 2022, was in Tanzania for a two-day official visit where he was received by his host President Samia at Dar es Salaam’s State House.
Addressing journalists shortly after her closed-door discussions with her guest, President Samia said it was important that Tanzania and Kenya remove all barriers that prevent the two from trading smoothly for the benefit of their respective populations.
The Tanzanian leader said that it was against that background that she and Mr Ruto directed their respective cabinet to work on 14 remaining non-tariff barriers that hinder trade between Kenya and Tanzania so that the trade balance between the two nations can be improved.
According to President Samia, there were around 68 barriers that she and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had identified but so far only 54 of them have been removed.
“We have tasked our respective trade and investment ministers to work on the remaining barriers so that we can have more freedom now of trading with one another,” said Samia.
“When Tanzania benefits, Kenya benefits,” she added. “Let us not share our poverty but prosperity. This can only be realized if we can trade more between ourselves.”
Full story here.
Mwinyi forms task force on political pluralism in Zanzibar
President of Zanzibar Hussein Mwinyi on Monday formed an 11-member task force that will work on the proposals to improve multiparty democracy in the archipelago which were raised during the just-concluded three-day conference on political pluralism in the isles.
Organised by the Office of the President, the Office of the Second Vice President and the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, the conference brought together members from political parties, academia and civil society to discuss the state of multiparty democracy in Zanzibar and discuss the way forward.
The conference, which President Mwinyi inaugurated on October 4, 2022, was even attended by participants from the opposition CHADEMA, the party which boycotted a similar task force launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The task force that President Mwinyi launched on Monday has 14 days to go through the proposals that participants during the three-day event came up with before it submits its report to the leader of the semi-autonomous archipelago.
“I have no doubt with your ability, skills and experience in executing this assignment,” Dr Mwinyi said during the launching of the task force in a function that took place at the Vuga-based State House.
Reiterating his support for a process aimed at improving multiparty democracy in Zanzibar, President Mwinyi said: “Our key goal is to create a conducive environment to conduct political activities in the country under peace, unity and solidarity.”
The task force will be chaired by Dr Ali Ahmed Uki, the Head of the Zanzibar School of Law who said during the launching that the task force will perform the assignment speedily and at a high level of precision.
“We will immediately start the job and ensure that we reach all groups of the community to come up with a true representative document for submission to the government,” the government-owned Daily News newspaper quoted Dr Uki as saying.
Other members of the team include Vice-Chair Lady Ambassador Amina Salum Ali; Vuai Ali Vuai, Jussa Ismail Ladu and Said Issa Mohammed who represent the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, ACT-Wazalendo and CHADEMA, respectively.
Others with their organisations in brackets are Rukia Kassim Ahmed (CUF); Ameir Hassan Ameir (Demokrasia Makini); Joseph Abdallh Meza (NGOs); Nicholaus Nchinga (religions); Professor Mohammed Makame Haji (Academicians); and Sheikh Thabiti Norman Jongo (Islam).
Here’s why LHRC wants death penalty abolished in Tanzania
Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) on Monday demanded the government of Tanzania abolish the death penalty, outlining various reasons as to why the East African nation should pursue that goal.
Today, October 10, 2022, the world is commemorating World Day Against the Death Penalty, a day on which abolitionists across the world unite to mobilize civil society, political leaders, lawyers, public opinion and more to support the call for the universal abolition of capital punishment.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Monday, LHRC’s Executive Director Anna Henga said that the first reason why the death penalty should be abolished is that the punishment does not reform a convicted offender.
“The death penalty is tantamount to revenge,” Henga, who is an advocate by profession, told a press conference. “It does not reform the said criminal. Also, the death penalty does not give any relief to the victim of a crime.”
Henga also warned against the danger of sending the wrong people to death row, saying that, unlike other sentences that can be reviewed and thus unlawfully sentenced people can be released, that cannot happen in the case of the death penalty.
“Examples abound of cases where people who were not supposed to be hanged to death were subjected to that horrible sentence,” Henga pointed out. “The death penalty, unlike, say, imprisonment, cannot be reviewed or reformed. Once administered, you’re gone.”
Full story here.
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